w. s. w. 

A VOYAGE IN THAT DIRECTION 
TO THE WEST INDIES. 



ROBERT ELWES, Esq., 



ATIHOE OF "A SKETCHES S TOUR ROUND THE WORLD. 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
gxom Original grafrrittgs bg tht 2Utbor. 



LONDON : 




KERBY & SON, 190, OXFORD STREET. 
1866. 

h 



PR K FACE. 



There have been numerous books already written 
about the West Indies, but they are chiefly either 
statistical works, or adventures of naval officers ; 
and although a voyage to those islands is a most 
agreeable trip for the winter months, but few 
people undertake it for pleasure. When I wished 
to go tliere, I could find no book, with the 
exception of A. Trollope's amusing work, that 
could give me any information on the subject. 
People usually profess to have a dislike to Guide- 
books, but in many countries I have often found 
the want of them ; and unless a traveller studies 
and " reads up" a country before he goes there, he 
must often be liable to pass by objects worthy of 
notice without knowing it till afterwards. 



iv PREFACE. 

I fouDcl many things in the West Indies so 
utterly different from what I expected, that I 
need hardly apologise for writing this short 
volume ; and if it be found useful to those 
about to visit these beautiful possessions of 
the British Crown, my trouble will be amply 
repaid. 

The lithographs have been done entirely by 
myself, and 1 hope they will give some idea of 
the beauty of the scenery. 

E. E. 



Congham House, Norfolk. 
1865. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



TOWER OF ST. JEROME, OLD PANAMA - Frontispiece. 

ST. THOMAS To face Page 6 

PANAMA RAILWAY - 22 

PANAMA -----„- 39 

NEWCASTLE 50 

THE BOG WALK ----„- 56 

ST. THOMAS'S IN THE VALE „ - 60 

THE FERN WALK - 66 

ST. CHRISTOPHER'S - 78 

GRENADA- „ - 92 

THE BOTANICAL GARDENS „, 104 

CHAGUARAMOS BAY - - - „ - 108 

MARRACCAS - - - „ - 114 

THE BLUE BASIN - - - „ - 116 



w. s. w. 



CHAPTEE I. 

Departure from England. — The Shannon. — A Gale of wind. 
— Island of Sombrero. — St. Thomas. — Description of 
the Town. 

Voyages in steamers are generally all alike. The 
passengers at first think that they are going to 
have a very quick run, and that everything must 
go on prosperously. Then the weather changes, 
and they imagine that they never will arrive at 
their destination ; and they usually finish by con- 
sidering that they have had a tolerable passage, 
and have been rather fortunate to get it. So it 
will suffice to say that I and my wife sailed from 
Southampton, on Tuesday, the 17th of January, 
1865 ; in the Eoyal Mail Company's steamship 
Shannon, 3,472 tons, Captain Woolley, Com- 
mander. We were bound for the West Indies, 
and had taken a return ticket for Colon, — or as 
it is generally called, Aspinwall, — the terminus 
on the Atlantic side of the Panama railway. We 
had leave to stop and break our voyage at any 

B 



2 



A GALE. 



islands we liked, and might return from Havana 
instead of Colon, if by chance we went to Cuba. 

On leaving home we meant to remain abroad 
for three months, principally to avoid the cold 
of an English spring, and had no particular plan 
as to where to go or where to stay ; but intended 
to cross the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific 
side, and perhaps go on to Mexico. 

The Shannon was a splendid iron ship, and for 
some days we had fine weather ; but off the 
Azores we picked up the gale (W.N.W.) which 
seems to be always blowing there, and now for 
three days our vessel's powers were put to the 
test. It was a wonderful thing to see how 
the great Atlantic billows tossed this huge vessel 
about. Sometimes they threw her bows right 
into the air, so that her forefoot must have 
been visible. Then she dived into it with her 
wedge-like bows, taking in green seas over every- 
thing ; and the lady passengers were rather 
startled to hear one of the officers affirm that 
the fore part of the vessel had been under water 
for thirty-six hours. However, under the able 
management of her captain and excellent chief 
officer, we weathered the gale in safety, with- 
out the loss of a spar, or anything else, and 
soon ran into warmer weather, and smoother 
water. 

On Feb. 1 we made a fine run of 312 miles, 



SOMBRERO. 



3 



and sighted the island of Sombrero, the first land 
we had seen. This wretched little island, about a 
mile long, looked utterly barren and worthless; 
and its black cliffs, about thirty feet high, are 
continually beaten by the long swell of the At- 
lantic ; but it has its value, for it has been lately 
discovered to be principally composed of a hard 
sort of guano, and that is now worked, and 
several low houses are built on it for the 
accommodation of people thus employed. In the 
evening, we were off the entrance of the harbour 
of St. Thomas, but did not enter till the next 
morning.* 

St. Thomas is a Danish island, and nearly a 
free port, and has been chosen, for the goodness 
of its harbour and the convenience of its situation, 
as the chief depot of the Mail Steamship Com- 
pany; and to it all the Transatlantic steamers 
run, and there transfer their passengers and 
freight to smaller vessels. These smaller ones 
run on different routes. One branch goes to 

* I here give the log of the Shannon : — 





Miles. 


January 18 


181 


19 


242 


20 


253 


21 


211 


22 


169 


23 


170 


24 


172 


25 


... 172 



Mile?. 

January 26 206 

27 261 

28 278 

„ 29 278 

30 275 

31 301 

February 1 312 

B 2 



4 



ST. THOMAS. 



Vera Cruz, Mexico, touching at Havana, — this is 
called the Gulf-boat. A second to Hayti, Jamaica, 
and Colon ; this takes all passengers and freight 
for Vancouver's Island, the north-west coast of 
America, and South America, viz., Peru and 
Chili. A third runs to the Windward Islands, as 
far as Barbadoes, where it again branches, — one 
going to Demerara, the other to Trinidad and 
Tobago ; and a fourth takes the Bahama route. 
Besides these, a steamer runs to Cumana, and 
another to New York ; but these belong to other 
companies. The Liverpool screw line also touches 
at St. Thomas. So that it may be perceived that 
this little island, of twelve miles long, has become 
one of the most important of the West Indian 
group. 

In the morning the Shannon went into the 
harbour, and immediately the Derwent, for the 
Windward Islands, and the Solent, for the Isth- 
mus, sheered up on either side, and a gangway 
being placed to each, the work of trans-shipment 
immediately commenced. The Dervjent was to 
sail at 9 a.m., so her passengers had but little 
time. We in the Solent were to leave at 4 p.m. 
So having seen our new cabin and put our bag- 
gage on board, we went on shore to visit the 
Consul, and to see the town. This we found 
clean and flourishing ; but I have no 'idea what 
the name of it is, for it seems to be never used. 



ST. CROIX. 



5 



The town has good streets and shops ; but as 
all passengers have to go there, and often to wait 
some days, it is particularly disliked by every one. 
It is, moreover, often visited by yellow fever, 
which may arise from the number of foreign ship- 
ping congregated there, and from the great heat 
of the climate, for, as it faces the south, when 
there is no wind it becomes like an oven. The 
sickness probably is increased by the stagnant 
state of the harbour, which is nearly landlocked ; 
and the rise of the tide is so small (not being 
more than eighteen inches or two feet), that the 
water does not get often changed. Lately they 
have cut a small channel from the inner corner of 
the harbour to an adjacent bay, and that gives a 
little more current, and it is said that the health 
of the place is already improved. 

The black population speak English (as does, 
indeed, everyone else), and are most amusing ; 
the women dressing in the very height of fashion. 
The island produces nothing, the people being 
able to earn more about the streets and in the 
harbour, than they could obtain from field labour ; 
formerly it was cultivated, and used to send home 
a certain quantity of sugar. 

St. Croix is another Danish island, about twenty 
miles off. It is all under cultivation, and from 
accounts it is not a bad place to stay at, having 
an hotel and good roads. A small steamer runs 



TNQUIRTES ABOUT MEXICO. 



there, and it is a good deal resorted to by 
invalids. 

The town at St. Thomas consists chiefly of one 
long street, but it also runs up the shoulders of 
three hills, somewhat like Valparaiso ; and the 
houses being bright, painted yellow and pink with 
red roofs, it has a cheerful and riant appearance. 
The hills behind rise rather steeply, and numerous 
villas are scattered about the lower parts of them, 
the pink house of the Governor being conspicuous 
above all. We landed at a small pier, and found 
ourselves in an avenue of cocoa-nut trees, under 
which numbers of negresses were selling fruit, 
oranges, bananas, sugar-cane, etc. ; but most of 
these commodities were brought from other 
islands. There is another fruit market, also 
shaded with trees, in the other part of the town. 
A fort, painted pink and white, with the Danish 
flag flying, commanded the east side of the town, 
and below is a small public garden, where the 
band plays twice a week. The stores supply 
every sort of English, French, and German goods, 
but the chief trade seems to be in cigars, Panama 
hats, and light clothing ; the price of good cigars 
was £l per hundred. 

One great object that I had in St. Thomas, was 
to find out all I could about Mexico, whether it 
would be feasible to land at Acapulco, and from 
there ride up to the capital, and return by Vera 



V 



LEAVE ST. THOMAS. 



7 



Cruz. I therefore called on the Mexican Consul ; 
but he told me at once that he knew nothing, that 
he had never been there, and could give no infor- 
mation. I was referred from one person to 
another, and at last to an American merchant, 
who was very civil, as I have always found Ame- 
ricans in a foreign country. He showed me a 
handbook of the Panama railway, where Acapulco 
and the neighbouring country was described, but 
he could not tell me much about the present state 
of affairs. He said that it was in a disturbed 
state, and advised me not to attempt it, and 1 
could learn no more than that in St. Thomas. 
However, Ave determined to go as far as Panama, 
have a look at the Pacific, and then, if the Mexi- 
can route was difficult, to return. 



8 



» 



CHAPTER II. 

Leave St. Thomas. — St. Domingo. — Jacmel. — Jamaica. — 
Port Royal. — Land at Kingston.-— State of the Streets. 
— Shops. 

And so we left St. Thomas, on the second of 
February, in the Solent, 1,400 tons, for Jamaica 
and Aspinwall. We ran along in sight of the 
pretty looking island of Porto Kico, but did not 
touch there. It is still in the possession of Spain' 
and is rather a large island, being ninety-three 
miles long, and eighty-three wide. It is fertile, 
and supplies most of the neighbouring islands with 
beef. We had a detachment of a West Indian 
regiment on board, bound for Honduras. They 
fancied that they had some grievance about pro- 
visions or rum, or something of that sort, and at 
last one or two of them broke out in open mutiny, 
— one, indeed, rushing about with a knife, — but he 
was soon seized and overpowered by the crew and 
joassengers, and finished his voyage in irons. At 
daylight the next morning, we found ourselves 
in sight of the mountainous coast of Hayti, or St. 
Domingo. It is a very large island, being 380 
miles in length, rugged and mountainous, the 



HAYTI, OE ST. DOMINGO. 



9 



highest peak rising to the altitude of 7,450 
feet. 

Formerly the island was owned half by the 
French and half by the Spaniards, but now the 
French have entirely given up their part. Hav- 
ing had several revolutions, and been governed by 
the Emperors Faustin and Soulouque, it is now a 
black republic. Lately there has been some severe 
fighting between the blacks and the Spaniards, who 
still hold a part, but I believe the latter are now 
on the point of giving it up entirely. The coun- 
try being very mountainous, and covered with 
wood, the negroes have a great advantage ; and the 
climate being excessively unhealthy, it was found 
impossible for the Spaniards to keep their troops 
there. 

After coasting along for some way, we entered 
the bay in which is situated the town of Jacmel. 
Here the mail-boat went on shore, and another 
followed. Some of the passengers went on shore 
for a few minutes ; but landing is often very dif- 
ficult, a heavy surf rolling in from the ocean. 
Sentries were on the pier and in different parts 
of the town, some with shoes, some with coats, 
some without, and generally they were quite will- 
ing, for a quarter of a dollar, to put down their 
muskets and go an errand. The boats soon re- 
turned, bringing plenty of pine-apples, and other 
fruits, and we then proceeded on our voyage. 



10 A VOYAGE, ETC. 

February 4. — The distance from St. Thomas's 
to Jacmel was 470 miles, and hence to Kingston 
255 ; but at daylight we found ourselves a few 
miles off the southern coast of Jamaica, and we 
ran all day along in full view of the island. It ap- 
peared to be a succession of hills, with higher moun- 
tains behind them ; and as we got nearer we could 
see the thick forests, and below them the culti- 
vated land, bright green, with fields of sugar-cane 
and here and there the houses, the steam-engines 
with the tall chimneys, and the sheds used for 
different purposes in the manufacture of sugar- 
We gazed at all these most anxiously, as we 
coasted along, wondering which parts we should 
visit and how we should get there ; but most 
persons gave us very discouraging accounts of the 
travelling in the island, saying there were no inns, 
but that we must go up to people's houses, and 
depend on their hospitality ; that there were no 
horses to be hired, and if we wanted any, we 
should have to buy a pair ; " but don't you know 
people on the island," etc., etc. 

Late in the afternoon we rounded the flat 
low point of Port Eoyal and picked up a black 
pilot, who was to take us up to Kingston. Port 
Eoyal is situated at the end of a long sandy 
spit called the Palisades, which entirely defends 
the harbour of Kingston from the sea. It was 
formerly a row of islets, but to protect the country 



PORT ROYAL. 



11 



from the attacks of the buccaneers the Spaniards 
filled up the openings between them with posts, 
and since that the sand has silted them up entirely, 
and it is now a continuous spit of land, and hence 
got its name of the Palisades. 

Port Koyal, famous for yellow fever, sharks and 
landcrabs, is built at the end of this spit, where 
it becomes broader, and here lie the men-of-war 
and here are the commissariat stores, barracks, etc. 
Formerly, old Port Koyal stood further out, but 
it was entirely submerged by an earthquake in 
1692, and now there is deep water close to the 
point. We were boarded by the men-of-war's 
boats for the mails, the frigates Shannon and 
Rosario lying there. It was doubtful at first 
whether we should proceed up to Kingston that 
night. However, we sent out boats with lan- 
thorns to the principal buoys, and feeling our way 
carefully with the lead going, we arrived safely 
at the wharf at Kingston. 

Colonel Nelson, who had come out with us, and 
I, immediately went on shore, guided by an old 
resident, who was to show us the best board- 
ing-house in the town, to which we were to go 
on our return from Panama. This old resident 
had been sent, on some government service, to 
report on the Island of Sombrero, and as he had 
lived for a long time in Jamaica, we tried to 
get all the information we could from him ; but 



12 



KINGSTON. 



although he praised to the utmost everything in 
the island, he did not give us, as travellers, much 
encouragement ; and as for our trip to Mexico, 
he did nothing but shake his head at the thought 
of it. I fancied all the time that I had seen him 
before, and kept thinking where I could have heard 
his melancholy voice. Australia and the South 
Seas he had been in, Chili, Peru, and many other 
places where I had been, At last, he showed me 
some sketches, and then 1 thought that I recog- 
nised the stiff style ; and on f further questioning, 
I found that we had been in Lima at the same 
time ; and then I remembered that I, with Mr. 
Pitt Adams (who was then minister there), had 
looked over his portfolio, and that this old fellow, 
who was now shaking his head about our intended 
trip to Mexico, had actually persuaded me not to 
go there, when I was in Lima fourteen years 
before. With this gentleman, then, we passed 
through the company's coal wharf, where cocoa- 
nut and elate trees overshadow huge mountains 
of coal, and went into the streets. But, oh ! what 
streets, and what a town ! It was moonlight, and 
though this softened down everything, it could 
not conceal the desolation and ruinous look of 
these streets. They were unpaved and nearly 
ankle-deep in dust ; no footway, except in some 
of the streets near the harbour, where there was 
often a disjointed piece in front of a house, and 



KINGSTON. 



13 



this piece usually finished a foot above or below 
the next one. This made it still more dangerous, 
as the town was utterly unlighted. 

Before each house were steps, and on each side 
of the steps heaps of earth and rubbish, so that the 
only safe place whereon to walk wis the middle of 
the street. Then the houses all seemed to be in the 
last stage of decay. Eailings in front with brick 
pillars tumbling down ; doors gone, or hanging by 
one hinge ; windows patched with boards ; roofs 
falling in, in fact, in every form of unpicturesque 
ruin. If one house was in tolerable repair, the 
next would very likely be railed in more like an 
English pigstye than anything else. Each house 
had brick steps, but the last step was always 
twice as high as it ought to have been, for the 
road seemed to have been washed away from it ; 
and that was probably the case, as the streets 
became large muddy water-courses in the rainy 
season, and are then difficult to cross. Canoes 
are sometimes paddled up them, and I know a 
gentleman who, having to dine with another at 
the other side of the street, took off his shoes and 
stockings to walk across, putting them on again 
when safe on the other side. 

The houses could never have been good. I did 
not see a piece of cut stone in the whole town, 
and the brickwork looked as if all the mortar had 
been picked out of it. 



14 



BREAKFAST ON SHORE. 



We walked through the dust up Duke Street, 
and at last stopped at one of these houses, better 
looking, perhaps, than most of the others, but still 
we did not guess why we stopped there, till our 
friend rang the bell and told us that this was the 
boarding-house where we were to stay. Having 
ascended the dangerous steps we found it much 
better than its outside appearance led us to sup- 
pose. There were really good rooms, with a ver- 
andah and polished oak floor. Nice bedrooms, 
altogether comfortable, and as good as any place 
possibly could be in Kingston. It was nicely 
furnished ; but curiously enough the first thing 
that caught my eye in one of the rooms was 
a print of Castleacre, a ruin near my own house. 

We arranged that we should stay at this house 
on our return from Panama, and then went on 
to one of the hotels (Barkly House) to order break- 
fast for the morrow, — thinking we could get a 
better breakfast on shore than on board the steamer. 
Indeed, we then had visions of fresh flying-fish, 
landcrabs, and all sorts of West Indian delicacies * 
but we found our mistake in the morning, for 
we had to breakfast on bad coffee, ridiculously 
tough beefsteak, and fried bacon. And this was 
Kingston, and here on our return we were to stop 
a fortnight, and my friend the Colonel for five 
years ! 

To our surprise the next morning was rainy. 



GOOD SHOPS. 



15 



The ship was coaling, and at daybreak, with the 
rising sun, it was a busy and picturesque scene. 
The coal was all carried up on black women's heads. 
After I had had a delightful bath on shore at 
the Company's wharf, we went to breakfast, and 
then walked about the town to buy a few things 
we wanted. 

The shops were tolerably good, especially the 
drapers, and were full of everything that could 
be wanted. Full, too, of customers, principally 
coloured ladies, and they seemed to drive a 
'flourishing trade ; but business seemed mostly to 
be in the hands of the children of Israel, and 
Lazarus, Moses, and Levy were the commonest 
names. The town looked no better by daylight, 
in fact, in some things rather worse, and put one 
most in mind of Monte Video as I saw it once 
during the siege. And this, as already said, was 
Kingston, the chief town of our most important 
West Indian Island, — Kingston, which was for- 
merly so rich that every planter lived like a prince, 
and kept open house for everyone. But I saw no 
signs that it had ever been rich ; no large houses, 
even in ruins ; no remains of grandeur. The only 
solid looking things were the aforesaid brick steps 
to the houses. In Spanish towns, however by- 
gone, we generally see some remains of prosperity 
— well built church towers, handsome facades of 



16 



GOOD SHOPS. 



convents, arches, or fortifications ; but here was 
nothing, and if Kingston were shaken down by an 
earthquake, a few heaps of bricks would be the 
only remains to mark the spot. 



17 



CHAPTER III. 

Leave Jamaica. — Aspinwall, or Colon. — Dangerous Land- 
ing. — New Church. 

Jamaica to Colon, 550 miles ; time allowed two 
days and eight hours. The Solent sailed at twelve 
noon, February 6, and was so punctual that we 
nearly left three of our passengers behind us. 
They had been out for a drive, and had not been 
correctly told the hour of sailing ; nor had they 
heard the gun fired an hour before starting. The 
hawser getting foul of a buoy, delayed us for a 
short time after we had left the wharf ; so they 
came off in a shore boat in a great fright, and 
saved their passage. We had a fair wind across 
the Caribbean sea, and anchored off Colon at 10 
p.m. February 8. 

This place, situated on the Isthmus of Panama, 
is generally called Aspinwall by everybody except 
the English. The original appellation was Colon, 
so named in honour of Columbus (for that is his 
proper name in Italian and Spanish) ; but the 
Americans having built the town themselves, called 
it Aspinwall, after their great capitalist. The 
port for this side of the isthmus was originally 

c 



18 



COLON. 



Porto Bello, well known in the times of the buc- 
caneers. Aspinwall is a poor place, consisting of 
one street ; but there are two or three hotels 
quite as good as one could expect here, and 
several merchants houses. The railway runs 
right along the middle of the street into a great 
shed at the end of the pier, and the whole place 
looks much like a large station. 

Colon is situated on a small island called 
Manzanilla, on the eastern coast of Navy Bay, 
formerly nothing but a mangrove swamp, swarm- 
ing with mosquitoes and sandflies, but now it is 
drained, and there is a good road made round it, 
though there appeared to be but few people to 
ride or drive. To the east of the town are several 
rather nice houses, and beyond that a newly 
finished church, very substantially built of squared 
stone. The style is Gothic, with buttresses, and 
a steep roof, and it looks as if planned to resist 
the storms and snows of a northern climate, — 
but what will keep out cold will keep out heat, 
so it is not unsuitable for its purpose. We were 
to start by the train for Panama at 7 a.m. ; so 
having a hurried breakfast on board, we got 
everything ready to go on shore, when, from the 
deck, we had the pleasure of seeing the only 
morning train go off without us. We knew that 
the mails were not landed, so felt that we were 
safe ; but it happened thus. The railway au- 



DANGEROUS LANDING. 19 

tliorities had told the officers that they must be 
quick, or that the train would have to wait. " Let 
it wait, then/'' they impudently answered. This did 
not suit the independent Yankees ; so they started 
the train, and we unfortunate passengers and the 
mails were left behind. We then went on shore 
to pass away the time, but to get on shore was no 
easy matter. We had to land from the high-sided 
steamer to the wharf down a steep plank, by 
which they were discharging the cargo. It was 
a work of danger to us, but still more to the 
cargo, which was rolled down the plank, and it 
seemed to afford great amusement to the nigger 
crew when one package dashed against another on 
the pier. I was not, then, surprised at things being 
damaged in the transit; but nobody seemed to care. 

So we landed, and walked about the town, in- 
spected the new church, which one of our pas- 
sengers, the Bishop of British Columbia, intended 
to consecrate, and then strolled along the shore. 
There was a nice cool breeze, and the sea rolled 
in over the coral reefs in great clear waves, and 
broke on the shore with the noise of thunder. 
There is often a high sea here ; and at the end of 
the town, against the wharf, lies the wreck of the 
Boyal Mail Steam-ship Company's ship the Avon, 
which was caught in a gale whilst lying at the 
wharf, could not get away, and was there dashed 
to pieces. 

c 2 



20 



THE ISTHMUS. 



Tired of the shore, we returned on board for 
our luggage, but then to get back to shore again, 
was a still greater difficulty. The steep plank 
was now greased to help the descent of the boxes, 
and that we had to go down. Mrs. E — was 
helped down by two officers, one on each side, to 
the great amusement of the rest, and we gentle- 
men had to get down as we best could by the 
help of a rope. All this might have been avoided 
by a plank from the sponsons, but nobody seemed 
to care. 

The train started at 3 p.m., and the heat was 
tremendous. Before we left, I was introduced to 
Mr. Parker, the manager of the line ; and as I 
had heard that they often give free passages to 
people going for pleasure, I went to him and 
asked him to give me a return ticket, for I should 
add that the fare is £5 each way, which was ex- 
cessively high for forty-nine miles. Mr. Parker 
heard what I had to say in silence, then sent me 
to take a single ticket for myself and wife, and 
gave us a free pass back ; and knowing that I 
wished to make drawings on the line, he gave me 
a card to stop wherever I liked, and " the station- 
masters to entertain." This was the greatest boon 
to me, as it is very annoying to pass through a 
beautiful country without being able to stop. 

And now we started to cross the Isthmus ; a 
long American car held us all, — about sixty pas- 



THE STATIONS. 



21 



sengers, — and off we went. The first part of the 
line was on piles, over the creek that separates 
the island from the mainland, and for some way 
it was flat and marshy, with mangroves and swamp 
palms ; then we got on more hilly ground, and 
the first station was on the banks of the Chagres 
river. The scenery soon became very beautiful, 
for the track ran through the thickest and most 
luxuriant tropical vegetation. Palms, bananas, 
bamboos, and all sorts of great broad-leaved 
plants, the larger trees covered with orchids and 
festooned with lianas. In some places we passed 
through patches of the primaeval forest, with tall, 
smooth, white-stemmed trees ; in other places, 
the trees were so enveloped with climbing plants 
that they looked like ruins covered with ivy. 
Then we passed cleared patches with Indian look- 
ino* cottages, surrounded with orange and other 
fruit-trees ; indeed, there was some novelty at 
every yard of the line. 

The stations were wooden houses, painted 
white, with broad verandahs; they looked very 
nice, and generally had gardens in front, with 
the great scarlet hibiscus, passion-flowers of dif- 
ferent sorts, and many others, in full bloom ; 
but as it was now the dry season, the forest 
was not so full of flowers as it otherwise would 
have been. The rail is first carried up by the 
side of the river Chagres, and it crosses that 



22 



MATACHIN. 



stream at San Pablo by a large iron bridge, like 
an horizontal iron trough, supported on stone 
piers. This great square trough, being painted 
red, is excessively ugly. 

As we advanced, the country became more 
hilly, and we had beautiful views of the Chagres 
river. The ascent was gradual, and the track 
ran round the hills in very sharp curves ; but as 
they do not go very fast, doing the forty-nine 
miles in three hours and a half to four hours, 
there is no great danger. It is a single line, and 
the trains pass each other near the summit. There 
is a telegraph, but they do not work it for the 
trains. When the telegraph posts were first put 
up, it was very difficult to keep them long, as the 
ants and other insects destroyed them so quickly ; 
but now they have posts of cement, cast in a 
mould, which makes a strong and durable pillar. 
There has never yet been an accident ; an occa- 
sional nigger being run over or killed, from his 
own carelessness, of course not counting as any- 
thing. At one station, called Matachin, there 
was a rather large village of native huts, and the 
black women came to the side of the train, selling 
oranges, very good sponge-cake, bits of sugar- 
cane, and bottled beer, and we saw " draught ale" 
painted on one thatched hut. We were soon off 
again, and passed along by a rivulet called the 
Obispo, a tributary of the Chagres river. It was 



A DISTURBANCE. 



23 



like passing through a continuous stove-house of 
tropical plants, and the temperature of the cars 
being 95° Fahr., put us much in mind of the 
same. 

After Matachin, we soon arrived at the sum- 
mit; and here is a small earth-cutting, and what 
was very fortunate, a spring of good water, so 
they fill up the tank here. It is not possible to see 
either sea from the summit. Perhaps it may be 
done from some of the adjacent mountains ; but I 
think it would be difficult to find one from which 
both the Pacific and Atlantic were visible. From 
the summit, which is thirty-seven miles and 
three-eighths from Aspinwall, and ten miles one- 
fifth from Panama, the descent is much steeper ; 
the hills are more broken, and the valleys nar- 
rower ; all still covered with thick wood. We 
passed the pretty station of Paraiso (Paradise), 
and several others, and then ran down into a 
flatter country, and at last saw before us the blue 
waters of the great Pacific. The station is close 
to the water s edge, in the outskirts of Panama. 

Immediately on our arrival there began a ter- 
rific disturbance, As the morning train had come 
across without either mail or passengers, the 
South Pacific steamer, which was already late, 
had to wait the whole day. So the passengers 
for Chili and Peru were immediately seized on by 
the officials, their baggage scrambled for by por- 



24 



RIDE TO PANAMA. 



ters, and they were all hurried off to the tender 
and put on board, without having time to say- 
good-bye to anyone. A sword, that was to be 
given to the Peruvian Consul, was thrown to Mrs. 
E — ; a parcel for somebody else was tossed to 
me ; and though there was no necessity for hurry- 
ing us, we were pushed into different omnibuses, 
the drivers lashed the mules, and we were rattled 
over the stony road to the city of Panama. 



2.5 



CHAPTEE IV, 

Suburbs, of Panama. — The City. — Population. — Cathedral. 
— Trade. — Islands of Perico, Flamenco, and Istrao. 

We bumped first through the suburbs, through 
streets of tumble-down houses, where most of 
the inhabitants, intermixed with dogs, pigs, and 
poultry, were sitting in front of their doors. The 
women were generally cooking ; the black children 
nearly always naked : and the dogs looked by far 
the cleanest and most respectable of the establish- 
ment. Yet here there were remains of better 
days, even in the suburbs ; for a handsomely built 
stone church stood in an open square, and the 
houses round it were supported on light stone 
columns. The city itself looked as ruinous as 
the rest, with tall houses and narrow streets, and 
through these we were carried, and set down at 
the door of the Aspinwall House, an American 
hotel • and here most of the other passengers 
located themselves. 

Here we got a bad bedroom, — but there was 
no better to be had. We dined on the ground 
floor, which, like a restaurateur's, had different 
tables about the room. The cuisine was not good, 



26 



PANAMA. 



but ice was plentiful, and all sorts of cool drinks 
were mixed at the bar. Here we were to stay a 
week, and things looked anything but inviting. 
By night we were pretty well tired, but we missed 
the rolling of the ship, and could not sleep. The 
inmates of a cafe opposite were noisy, and the 
click of the billiard-balls continued for a long- 
time. About half-past twelve, the people came 
home from the theatre, bringing with them the 
head violinist^ — a tall gaunt negro, — who, with a 
long cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth, 
played to them for a long time. He performed 
wonderfully well, so that we could not help listen- 
ing to every note, and any other time I should have 
liked to have heard him, — but not then. Next, 
all the cocks awoke, and being a Spanish town, 
numbers are kept for fighting ; and as it grew 
light, macaws and monkeys joined in the concert 
from the neighbouring houses. 

Panama, one of the chief towns, and the prin- 
cipal port of the republic of New Granada, is 
situated on a promontory that projects into a large 
bay of the Pacific : strangely enough, although it 
looks over the sea, it faces east ; this is caused 
by the turn of the isthmus. It is in lat. 9° 50' N., 
and has a population of about 10,000. This Pa- 
nama is not the original city of that name. Old 
Panama, so famous in history, — the city that was 
sacked by Morgan and the buccaneers, — stood 



THE CATHEDRAL. 



27 



about seven miles off, close to the sea, -but was de- 
fended from attacks by dangerous reefs : Morgan, 
however, landed and took it in the rear. He is 
said to have ascended a hill, near the present city, 
to reconnoitre the place before attacking it, and 
the hill is still called Morro de los Buccaneros, but 
I do not think he could see it from there at 
all. There is a beautiful view of the present city 
and the adjacent country, so perhaps this has 
been mistaken for some other hill. 

Panama is not a large city ; the streets are 
built at right angles, have been well paved, and 
are furnished with trottoirs. The fortifications 
are still in good repair ; for the Spaniards built 
everything to last, and in many parts there is 
hardly a stone out of place on the parapet, The 
cathedral, in the principal square, is a large build- 
ing, in the Eoman-Spanish style, with a facade of 
brown stone, and two towers with short steeples 
on them ; but the towers are painted white, which 
spoils the effect, and the steeples are faced with 
the large pearl oyster-shells found in the bay, but 
it does not look well. There are several other 
churches, but mostly in ruins ; and several large 
convents, all well built, but now roofless. The 
interior of the cathedral is plain, with a nave and 
side aisles of round-headed arches, painted white, 
with the pulpit, candlesticks, and ornaments 
painted light blue ; all in bad taste, but the size 



28 



TRADE. 



makes it look pretty well. There were but few 
worshippers ; and not many months before, all 
the priests were turned out of Panama, and there 
was no service at all in the churches. They have 
lately been allowed to return. 

The trade of Panama is now chiefly in the 
hands of the railway company ; the steamers for 
the South Pacific, for Vancouver's Island and Cali- 
fornia, for San Salvador and the coast, all running 
here, and sending their passengers over the isth- 
mus to Aspinwall ; but that does not do the town 
so much good as it might, for if the steamers keep 
their time, the rail takes the passengers away, 
and most of them never enter the town at all. 
The South Pacific line runs in conjunction with 
our West Indian steamers, but the American 
one from California is connected with the Aspin- 
wall and New York boat ; and as this sails every 
ten days, and the South Pacific and West Indian 
every fortnight, the passengers from England to 
California often have to wait several days in 
Panama, Thus, if people want to go from the 
north-west coasts of America to England, the 
best way is to go by the American steamer from 
Aspinwall to New York, and then cross the At- 
lantic by Cunard's, or one of those lines. They 
will do it in several days less time, and several 
pounds cheaper, the passage-money from Aspin- 
wall to England, by St. Thomas's, being £A0, 



ISLAND OF PERICO, ETC. 



29 



while from New York it is £25 or £20 ; this 
leaves £15 or £20 to go from Aspinwall to New 
York, and I do not think it costs so much. 

Some of our passengers were bound for San 
Salvador, and so I went out in the tender to see 
them off, as the large steamers all lie at some 
islands two miles and a half from the town. 
These islands have been purchased as a station by 
the company ; they are called Perico, Flamenco, 
and Islnao ; they are wooded, and have fine 
springs of water. Then, on another day, the 
great Californian steamer was to sail, and with 
her several of our friends, including the Bishop of 
British Columbia and his wife, were to go, on 
their way to Vancouver s Island, so we went off 
again to say good-bye to them. We all went down 
to the quay, which is also the terminus of the 
railway, and on board the tender, and waited 
there till the train with the American passengers 
came in from Aspinwall. They were a rough- 
looking lot ; and as they hurried on board, they 
were beset by numbers of people selling oranges, 
pines, cigars, and all kinds of things. Among 
the last of the passengers, a North American lady 
was carried from the cars, on a mattress, evidently 
in a dying state. Her husband was with her, and 
the doctor of the New York steamer ; but she 
was unconscious of everything, and her heavy 
breathing was the only sign of life. They laid 



30 



DEATH-SCENE. 



her down on the deck in the midst of the row 
and confusion, her husband kneeling by her side, 
and occasionally moistening her parched lips with 
water. The bishop also went to her ; but before 
we left the wharf she died. Death is always ter- 
rible ; but to see it in the midst of such noise 
and riot was still more dreadful, — people buying 
and selling oranges, cigars, brandy, all around, 
and many of the passengers (for she came over 
in the luggage-van) not knowing that there was 
anyone ill on board. Her body was carried again 
on to the wharf, followed by her heart-broken 
husband. She had been very ill at New York, 
and they were taking her to California as a last 
resource ; and though she was almost dying at 
Aspinwall, they brought her across the isthmus in 
one of the luggage- cars, hoping that she would 
recover at sea. 

The tender then took us off to the Californian 
steamer, The Golden City, an immense ship, of 
about 3,000 tons burden. She was excellently 
arranged for passengers, with very nice state- 
rooms, fine large dining saloons, and everything 
clean and neat. Her open deck overhangs the 
sides, making a promenade all round ; and she 
may do very well for the Pacific, but I do not 
think that I should like to cross the Atlantic in 
her, — though they must sometimes have bad 
weather enough off San Francisco. 



RAILWAY OFFICIALS. 



31 



The captain, an Englishman, showed us over 
everything. We then bid farewell to the Bishop 
and Mrs. Hills, returned on board our steamer, and 
went back by moonlight to Panama. The boat 
of the tender landed us near the Consul's house, 
and we walked back to the hotel. I must here 
mention the kindness of the officials connected 
with the railway and with the steamers. We had 
nothing to do but to ask leave, and they allowed 
us to go out in their tenders, or anywhere we 
pleased. 



32 



CHAPTEE V. 

San Pablo.— Iron bridge across the Chagres river.- — The 
forest of Bambacoas. — Paraiso. — Its Reptiles. — Palls 
of the Obispo. 

We had now. arranged to go out for a day or two 
to some of the stations on the railway, and from 
what we had heard of its picturesqueness had se- 
lected San Pablo. -It was some distance beyond 
the summit, and close to the iron bridge over the 
Chagres river. At the Panama terminus we 
found Mr. Parker, the Aspinwall superintendent, 
also going by the train, so we started under his 
guidance. 

In the valley of the Obispo we stopped for 
some time, and as it was extremely pretty, I 
made a sketch from the line, — a good oppor- 
tunity, — and soon after we arrived at San Pablo. 
The station, like the others, was a nice white 
wooden house, of two stories, surrounded with a 
verandah, and well open to the breeeze. We 
found the station-master, Mr. Cully, very civil, 
and his wife immediately began to think of dinner 
for us. But we wished for nothing then, and as 
they were going along the line some distance in a 



THE FOREST. 



33 



hand-car, we accompanied them. Each station is 
provided with a hand-car, worked by two or four 
blacks, with a winch ; and each station-master 
has to go along his part of the line in it every 
day, to see that it is in order. The station is 
close by the iron bridge which spans the Chagres 
river at Barbacoas. It is 525 feet long, 18 feet 
wide, and 40 feet above the river, so it is a very 
large construction. It has six spans, of a hundred 
feet each, of iron, and is supported by five stone 
piers. 

We crossed the bridge in the car, and then 
we were set down, as I thought I could make a 
sketch there, but the bridge being painted red, was 
so excessively ugly that it spoilt everything near it. 
The mosquitoes, too, found me out ; so after a 
hasty sketch of the station, we walked along the 
line for some distauce. The forest is cleared for 
twelve or fifteen yards on each side of the track ; 
but on each side of that, it is a thick wall of trees, 
matted with all sorts of smaller plants and creepers. 
It is so thick that, where there is no path, it is 
difficult to push one's way in for a single yard ; 
even the cattle, which graze on each side of the 
track, do not get in, — but I suspect that there is 
nothing to tempt them. The forest was full of 
orchids, but as it was near the end of the dry 
season, not many were in flower. The most noted 
of the flowers, sometimes though rarely, found on 

D 



34 



A NIGHT AT THE STATION. 



the isthmus is Peristera alata, named by the 
Spaniards the Espiritu Santo, or the Holy Ghost ; 
for the blossom has the exact form of a white 
dove with outspread wings hovering in it. 

We walked for some distance, but it was all 
one wall of trees ; so sat down and waited for the 
car to take us back again. A little beyond, a 
great ant-eater, or ant-bear, lay dead ; it was 
quite fresh, but the turkey buzzards had found it 
out. As it got dark, the forest seemed to awake, 
and was full of the cries of birds and monkeys, 
and we could hear a loud roar now and then at a 
great distance. At last we heard the car return- 
ing, and it soon ran us back to San Pablo. 

After a homely meal, we retired to our room, — 
a good large spare room, with which each station 
is provided. We were tired, and, as it was much 
cooler than Panama, hoped for a good night's rest. 
But no, our lot was far otherwise. The adjoining 
room, like ours, was open to the roof, so we could 
hear tolerably plainly anything that went on 
there ; and we were just going to sleep when we 
were startled by dreadful moans. Then a man 
walking about,— then clashing of water, — then 
groans again. We were now wide awake, and 
tried to make out what it was ; then a few 
minutes of silence, — then the moans, and splash- 
ing of water again, — and all through the livelong 
night did this continue. We could not think 



PLANTS OF PAEAISO. 



35 



what the splashing was ; but as our heads had 
been filled with reports of yellow and other 
fevers, we fancied it must be some poor wretch 
in the last stage bathing his burning head. We 
hardly slept all night, as the noise never ceased 
for many minutes. I asked Mr. Culley afterwards 
what it was, and he told me at once that his fore- 
man had a rash on his hands from the effects of 
the sun, and all night he was in such pain that he 
was bathing them in cold water. Had we known 
this, we should have been satisfied. 

The next morning, a thick fog covered every- 
thing : so having seen enough of San Pablo, we 
took the train and went back to another station, 
called Paraiso. Crossing the summit, the rail de- 
scended, at the rate of sixty feet in the mile, into 
the valley of the Eio Grande, — here a little rocky 
brook. Paraiso (Paradise) is beautifully situated 
in a valley, surrounded by forest covered hills. 
The station-master, Mr. Hughes, welcomed us on 
the platform, and seemed glad that we were come 
to stay here. The garden was better than usual, 
and gay with scarlet hibiscus, passion-flowers, and 
other creepers : and by the side of the house grew 
a bread-nut tree, with great ©lossy leaves two feet 
long, cocoa-nuts, bananas, and others : — and, what 
they seemed most to pride themselves on, some 
rose-trees. We were shown into a nice room, and 
soon afterwards the hand-car was ordered, as the 



36 



CARAPATOS, OR WOOD-TTCKS. 



station-master had to visit some of the works. 
That we might see all we could, we accompanied 
him, though it was midday and the heat tre- 
mendous. 

We went to the stone quarry, a basaltic rock, 
where a number of men were at work digging 
stone. There was a steam-engine, and a crushing 
mill where the basalt was crushed into small 
pieces, then sent in cars, as ballast, to different 
parts of the line. The sun was too hot for us, so 
we were glad to return, and in the afternoon 
I made a sketch of the station, and then, guided 
by Mr. Hughes's two little boys, took a walk in 
the woods, for as there was a village, there were 
pastures in all directions. But as these pastures 
are used by the cattle, wood-ticks are very nu- 
merous, and we suffered from them accordingly. 
They are what are called carapatos in Brazil and 
Spanish countries, and are a small sort of tick. 
They bury their heads in the skin, and then, if not 
soon found, they go on sucking the blood till they 
swell up to the size of a pea ; but a slight itching 
generally tells of their whereabouts. I believe the 
proper way to get them off is to put a drop of oil 
on them ; and it is said that if pulled off, the head 
remains in the skin, and causes a troublesome sore ; 
but I always pulled them off without doing any- 
thing else, and never found any ill effects from it. 
By far the worst insect is the colorodillo, which is 



REPTILES. 



37 



neither more nor less than the English harvest- 
bug. I got well bitten by them, walking up a 
hill near Panama, and suffered dreadfully. 

The next day, Mr. Hughes persuaded us to stay 
at Paraiso, saying he would take us to the falls of 
Obispo in his hand-car directly the train had 
passed, and he gave such a glowing description 
of it, embosomed in thick forest, and all the trees 
clothed with orchids, that we agreed to stay. I 
had a delicious bath in the morning with his boys, 
in a deep pool of the little river, and then we 
waited anxiously for the train. The trains do not 
run very regularly, so it is very dangerous to go 
along the line in these cars until they have passed, 
and so you have to choose the times between the 
up train and the down, and then it seemed to me 
rather a risk. While we waited, Mr. Hughes 
rushed into the house for his gun, and pointed out 
to us a long snake in one of the hibiscus-trees in 
his garden. It was about six feet long, very 
slender, and of a beautiful light green, so exactly 
like the shoots of the plants or the stems of the 
passion-flower, that when it was still, it was ex- 
cessively difficult to distinguish it. A shot brought 
it to the ground, and one of the blacks, with a 
few blows of a stick, soon finished its existence. 
I do not think it was venomous ; but all people 
here have the greatest dread of snakes. They 
are tolerably numerous, so it is as well to be care- 



38 



FALLS OF OBISPO. 



ful. Scorpions, too, are not uncommon ; but the 
danger from these sort of things in hot climates 
is generally overrated. 

At last the train passed, and we started in the 
hand-car, worked by four blacks. It was a hard 
pull up to the summit, as the line ascends sixty 
feet in the mile ; hence it was a gradual descent 
to Obispo. We then, leaving the hand- car on a 
siding, walked by a narrow path about a hundred 
yards to the Falls. The river is dammed across 
by a barrier of rock, and below, the valley and 
the course of the brook are full of huge broken 
fragments. There was but little water, and the 
fall was a mere nothing ; but the whole place, 
surrounded with tall trees and tropical plants, was 
very pretty. Orchids and parasites of different 
sorts hung in masses on every tree. In the rainy 
season, there must be a fine river of water over 
the rocks. I made a slight sketch, and we re- 
turned to the line, hearing the A spin wall train 
pass by just before we got to it. This was a 
great satisfaction, as now we felt safe for our 
journey back. 



39 



CHAPTER VI. 

Return to Panama. — Tower of the Church of San Jerome. 
— Pearl Trade of Islas de las Perlas. — Conveyance of 
Treasure. — Cost of Railway from Panama to Aspinwall. 

On our return to Panama the next morning, we 
left the Aspinwall Hotel without regret, and took 
up our quarters at the house of Mr. Henderson 
the British consul. He was an old friend of mine, 
having been secretary to Mr. Southern, in Buenos 
Ayres, fourteen years ago, when I was also there ; 
but I had not seen him since that time. He 
kindly asked us to stay at his house during the 
rest of our visit at Panama, and we gladly accepted 
his offer. He had a very nice cool house, looking 
over the bay, and the N.E. wind used to blow in, 
sometimes with such violence that it was necessary 
to shut the windows. 

We did not leave Panama without making an 
expedition to the ruins of the old city. It is situ- 
ated behind a point of land about seven miles from 
the present town, but there is no carriage road to 
it, and on horseback it was difficult to find the 
way without a guide. Mr. Henderson therefore 
prepared a boat, and one morning we started at 



40 



TOWER OF SAN JEROME. 



daylight, and with a fair wind, soon ran over 
there. We could see the old town near the shore, 
but there was a troublesome reef of rocks which 
prevented our landing near it, and so we were put 
on shore nearly a mile from our destination. So 
we had to walk along the sand, and as it was shel- 
tered from the wind, and fully exposed to the sun, 
the heat was terrific. 

At last we got to the tower, the remains of the 
church of San Jerome. It was a massive square 
belfry, with three round-headed windows near the 
top on each side, and one square one in each story. 
Well built of squared stone, it bid fair to last yet 
as long as it now had, although some of the lower 
stones had been pulled out of the corners. Bushes 
and plants were growing on the top, and long 
creepers trailed out of the windows, making it look 
very pretty and picturesque, but giving an idea 
that they would soon pull the building down. I 
made a sketch of it ; but amongst the trees, which 
gave no shade while they kept the air away, the 
heat was worse than on the shore, and I was 
obliged soon to give it up. The difficulty of 
drawing in this heat is excessive. Often, one can- 
not sit in the sun, for the heat strikes through 
any common umbrella (a cotton one with a thick 
lining is the best) ; and if one is in the shade, 
the heat knocks one up, and by the time a pencil 
outline is finished, one is actually tired, and 



ISLAS DE LAS PER LAS. 



41 



would rather rest or do anything than finish the 
drawing. 

Besides this tower there was not much to see. 
An old stone bridge still spans the little river 
near, and a paved road leads some way into the 
forest ; but I believe that there is little else, and it 
was too hot to explore. A few people live in rude 
hovels near, but they could tell us nothing ; so, as 
we were to breakfast late at Panama, at 10*30 a.m. 
we were glad to return to our boat, and though 
so early, to quench our thirst with bottled beer. 

There appears to be no manufacture in Panama, 
except the gold chains made by the Indians. They 
are made of wire, and look like round braid, but 
they were not pretty. Pearls are also sold here. 
They are brought from a group of islands called 
Islas de las Perlas, about sixty miles south-east of 
Panama, and they produce about one hundred 
thousand dollars worth of pearls a year. The 
large shells are exported to make mother of pearl. 
Good eatable oysters are also found here. The 
famous Panama hats, used and sold all over the 
tropical countries, are made in Guayaquil, of a 
sort of fine grass. They are very durable, but 
very expensive, varying from five dollars, for 
which a common one may be purchased, to the 
very fine ones at one hundred dollars. 

Everything is very expensive in Panama. Wash- 
ing is two dollars and a half a dozen ; beer one 



42 



FREIGHT OF TREASURE. 



dollar a bottle. A carriage for a drive five dollars ; 
and the same for a lady's horse for a ride. A bath 
costs a dollar ; in fact, a dollar is about the same 
as a shilling in England. Even the shoeblacks 
in the street (for they do not take the trouble to 
black one's shoes in the hotel) charge fivepence. 
In fact, I suppose nobody would stop in Panama 
if they did not get high pay. 

At last our time was up, and we took leave of 
our kind friends, and left Panama again by rail 
for As pin wall. A fresh lot of passengers had 
arrived from the North and South Pacific, and a 
large freight of silver. It is said that, in the years 
1855 to 1860, three hundred millions of dollars 
have been sent over this line without the loss of 
a single dollar. Of course the freight of silver 
and gold is one of the chief sources of profit to 
the line ; and with the excessively high fares for 
passengers — five pounds — it pays a good dividend. 
However, the difficulties of making it were very 
great. First, from Aspinwall it had to be carried 
over deep swamps matted with mangroves and 
vines. The workmen lived on board an old brig 
anchored near the shore. After that they had 
the hulk of a condemned steamboat to live in. 
Then, as the time progressed, they built rude shan- 
ties, raised on piles above the swamp. Sickness 
was rife among them. The Irishmen, getting hold 
of the rum, died in numbers. Then all sorts of 



THE P1EE. 



43 



foreigners, attracted by the high wages, flocked 
there, and a thousand Chinese were imported ; but 
though every possible care was taken of them, 
they became melancholy, and numbers committed 
suicide. In a few weeks but few remained. 
American dollars, however, and enterprise con- 
quered everything, and on the 27th of January, 
1855, the last rail was laid, the first clearing of 
Manzanilla island having commenced in May 
1850. At Aspinwall large wharves are still being 
constructed. An iron lighthouse has been built, 
and at Panama the wooden pier has been replaced 
by one of iron, four hundred and fifty feet in 
length. The entire cost of the road is said to 
have been eight millions of dollars. 

Arrived in the evening at Aspinwall, we went 
on board the Solent again. The officers were de- 
lighted when they saw Mrs. E — and myself walk 
down. " I knew it was you directly I saw you 
on the pier but as we had agreed to go back 
by their vessel, that did not require any great 
cleverness. However, the best cabin was ready 
for us, and all went well. The treasure came 
across in the same train in charge of Mr. Hender- 
son's secretary — boxes of gold and great bars of 
silver, which were rolled on board and sent down 
the hatchway in a very unceremonious way. It 
was a curious sight to see the men, some black, 
some white, on the main deck, counting and book- 



44 



HONESTY OF OFFICIALS. 



ing up the bars of silver by the light of the 
lamp ; and it seemed rather a risk to leave such 
treasure unguarded. But none is ever lost. The 
weight of the bar is from one to two hundred- 
weight, and in shape like a brick, only double or 
treble the size, making them inconvenient things 
for a pilferer to stow away. 



45 



CHAPTEE VII. 

Voyage to Kingston. — The Church. — Tomb of Benbow. — 
St. George's Church. — Dress of the Ladies. — Visit to 
Newcastle. — St. Catherine's Peak. — The Blue Mountain. 

We had a rough passage in the leaky old Solent 
to Jamaica, and arrived at that benighted place 
April 24th, at 1 p.m. Our friend Colonel Nelson 
came on board, took us up to his own home, — 
the lodging-house in Duke Street which we had 
before visited, — and we stayed with him during 
our sojourn in Kingston. The next day, though it 
was very hot, I went into the town to draw some 
money from the bank, and afterwards went into the 
parish church. It is in the great square, a dusty 
desolate looking place, some wretched looking bar- 
racks and government offices form one side, tumble- 
down houses the other. The church has nothing to 
merit description except its ugliness, which a liberal 
coat of whitewash does not improve, but inside is 
the tomb of the gallant Benbow. A plain black slab 
with a quaint old English inscription marks his 
burial place, but the square pews with which the 
church is filled have encroached upon his tomb so 
as to cover up the first letter of each line. Seve- 



46 



ladies' costume. 



ral other monuments of naval and military officers 
were also here, but the whole thing was in such 
bad taste, or rather no taste at all, that I did not 
care to examine them. 

On Sunday we went to St. George's Church in 
Duke Street. The outside is like a substantial 
square red brick house, with sash windows and green 
Venetian shutters. In fact, it was so like houses 
one commonly sees, as to call for the remark that 
it was the first we had seen not apparently going 
to tumble down. There was a good congregation 
there, and the black ladies were dressed in their 
smartest, chiefly in white, but they appeared 
rather ludicrous in my eyes. If one sees a figure 
dressed in stiff white muslin with a bernouse grace- 
fully thrown over the shoulders, a white silk bon- 
net with perhaps daisies or orange flowers in it, 
and then a face like a well polished boot, it always 
appears to me as if the lady were masquerading, 
and had blacked her face for fun. They them- 
selves, however, are far from thinking so, and I 
daresay that my ideas of them in church would 
surprise them not a little. Indeed, I found that 
I was the one who was doing wrong, for I went 
to church in a white silk coat, which was not at 
all en regie. A friend of mine afterwards told 
me that he had done the same ; and the next 
morning he had a visit from a fat official, dressed 
in black, and in the highest state of perspiration, 



VISIT TO NEWCASTLE. 



47 



who remonstrated with him for appearing at 
church in his white coat, and begged him not to 
do so again. 

Our great wish was, of course, to see the interior 
of the island, and our first expedition was to be 
up to Newcastle, — the cantonment and barracks 
of the 6th Eegiment. Newcastle was rather a 
new establishment, the older ones, up Park Camp 
and Stoney-Hill barracks, having been visited by 
the yellow fever, though Stoney-Hill was 1,380 
feet above the sea ; but although Newcastle was 
3,800 feet, yet the scourge has followed them 
even to that height. 

Colonel Nelson also had to visit Newcastle, so 
we all went together. I hired a carriage of a 
Jew named Morris, and having ordered breakfast 
and riding-horses to be ready at the Gardens, half 
way, we left Kingston at 7 a.m., and drove off to 
these Gardens, where lived another Jew, Moses 
Lazarus. Our carriage was drawn by a pair of 
wretched half-starved horses, but we were obliged 
to take what we could get. We went out at the 
upper end of the town, and drove past the race- 
course, — a flat plain, now quite burnt up from 
the drought. The mountains beyond were very 
pretty, being so rugged that they looked as if 
they had been all crumpled up ; and the rays of 
the early sun now lit up one side of the steep 
ravines, whilst the other sides were in deep blue 
shade. 



48 



DRIVE TO THE GARDENS. 



Turning to the left, we entered a valley that 
leads up to the Gardens, down the bottom of 
which flows a clear rocky stream. It is dammed 
up at one place to supply Kingston with water, 
but it appears to me that nothing hardly is done 
toward irrigating the country. With mountains 
at the back, which supply these beautiful brooks, 
the whole of the lower country might be irrigated, 
and then would produce everything that was re- 
quired. Industry and enterprise were the only 
things wanted. On the rocky slopes of the valley 
grew some magnificent aloes ; — some with flower- 
stems thirty or forty feet high, and large spikes 
of orange-flowers at the top. Numbers of hum- 
ming birds fluttered round these flowers, sucking 
the juices or eating the insects in them, — never 
touching the flower except with their long bills. 

We stopped at the door of Moses Lazarus, who 
supplies horses, carriages, and keeps a store, where 
every sort of hardware, linen, crockery, liquors, 
beer, wine, brandy, preserved provisions, and I 
believe everything else, may be bought ; and 
Moses Lazarus himself has the reputation, and I 
believe truly earned, of being a thoroughly honest 
man, — I was almost saying the only honest man 
on the island. He had prepared a good break- 
fast for us, with a glass jug of sangaree, and then 
would take no payment for it, as he said he did 
not provide breakfasts for people, but got this 



MOUNTAIN ASCENT. 



49 



ready as we had ordered it. We were very much 
obliged, as we could have got none anywhere else, 
and then we hired his horses for a couple of days, 
and rode up to Newcastle. 

"The Gardens" appear to have been so called 
from being the site of the old botanic garden ; but 
the village close by is called Gordon's Town, pro- 
bably a corruption. A little farther and the car- 
riage road ended ; and here, lying in the road 
with his head downwards, we found a soldier dead 
drunk in the full glare of the sun. Colonel Nelson 
propped him up against a bank, and sent back 
some men to carry him away. How can it be 
wondered at if these poor fellows suffer from 
fever and disease, if they drink rum to such an 
excess, and then sleep it off in the sun 1 The road 
now became only a horse-path, and a very rugged 
one it was, sometimes with a wall of rock on 
one side, and a tremendous precipice on the 
other. It was excessively pretty, often shaded 
with orange, mango, and other trees. We had 
before us something like a Welsh glen, with the 
addition of tropical trees, and gold and silver 
ferns, instead of oak ferns and polypody. The 
little stream below wound its way among grey 
boulders, and we forded it several times, — once 
near a very pretty waterfall. Then we got higher 
and higher by degrees, till we zigzagged up the 
steep shoulder of the mountain, and at the eleva- 

E 



50 



VIEW FROM NEWCASTLE 



tion of 3,000 feet above Kingston, arrived at the 
aerial camp of Newcastle. 

Colonel Nelson introduced us to Colonel Hobbs, 
and he got us excellent accommodation in the 
rooms of an absent officer. The officers' quarters 
were higher than the rest, and are dotted about the 
hill in detached bungalows. We dined with Colonel 
Hobbs, and afterwards went out on the parade 
to hear the band play. It was delightfully cool, 
and we were glad to have blankets on our beds, 
but the cold water to wash in seemed the greatest 
luxury. At Kingston we had a bath-room with 
large tubs, but though the water was fresh, it 
never felt quite cold. The view from Newcastle 
was truly magnificent. In the distance was the 
flat country of Kingston, with the town just 
visible ; and then beyond was Port Royal and 
the Palisades running out into the azure bay. 
Nearer, the eye ranged over a fine jurnble of 
mountains and steep ravines ; and to the left rose 
another mountain, on which is perched Flamstead, 
the country-house of the Governor. On another 
hill, a little lower, is a church and the bishop's 
house. 

I was sorry to see the whole of the wood near 
Newcastle had been cleared away (if, indeed, there 
ever had been any), and they were still clearing 
some of the adjacent hill. I told them that they 
would ruin their water-supply if they cut down 



MOUNTAIN SCENERY, 



51 



all the woods, — and already they have a very short 
supply ; indeed, I think they made a mistake in 
putting Newcastle so very high, on that account ; 
for undoubtedly, in the tropics, everything de- 
pends on an abundance of water. In Eio Janeiro, 
they were obliged to forbid any trees from being 
cut down on the Corcovado behind the town, — for 
from some of it being cleared, the springs on that 
mountain soon began to decrease. 

After breakfast the next morning, we mounted 
our horses to return to Kingston ; but an officer 
proposed that we should vary our route by riding 
round by St. Catherine's Peak, which rises behind 
the cantonment to the height of 5,070 feet, and 
kindly offered to be our guide ; we should then 
get into another valley, from which there was a 
fine view of the Blue Mountain. So instead of 
descending we went up higher, and entered a 
wood full of tall tree-ferns. It was rather too 
late for views, for at ten o'clock mists generally 
rise on the mountains, and the whole country 
towards the north was quite obscured ; but the 
wood-roacl was beautiful. There were great tree- 
ferns with stems thirty or forty feet high, with 
spreading tops like small palm-trees, and all the 
banks carpeted with different sorts of other ferns. 
The trees over them were not large, but crowded 
with orchids, all fostered by the continual damp, 
so altogether it was a fine specimen of tropical 



52 



VALLEY OF NEWCASTLE. 



vegetation. It was not however thick, like a 
Brazilian or Panama forest. It was easy to go in 
anywhere, and was about as close as a neglected 
English wood. 

The path, which was called the Fern-walk, led 
us out on to the open hillside, and although the 
Blue Mountain was obscured with clouds, we had 
a fine view down the valley. The sides of the 
valleys were steep, but cultivated and planted 
with coffee-bushes, and cottages were perched 
about on different hills ; a stream at the bottom 
ran down to the southern coast, and became the 
Yallah river. The whole was extremely like some 
of the views in Madeira, — almost like looking 
down into the Corral, but not quite so rocky, nor 
on so large a scale. We returned by another notch 
of the mountain into the Newcastle valley, and then 
Mrs. E — , and the rest of the party, stopped at a 
barbacu, as it is called, to see the process of drying 
coffee. I had often seen this, so rode slowly on, 
as I wished to make a few pencil sketches of the 
scenery on my way down, but regretted much that 
I could not have a few hours hard work at drawing 
in the Fern- walk, — for these novel forms of vegeta- 
tion require careful study. We all joined again at 
" The Gardens," and leaving our horses there, 
hired a carriage of the honest Lazarus, and drove 
back in the evening to Kingston. 



53 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Description of Spanish Town. — Bog Walk. — St. Thomas 
in the Vale. — Rio Cobre. — Village of Linstead. — En- 
tertainment at Ewarton. — Village School. — Monnt 
Diavolo. — Village of Moneagne. — Sngar Estate at Lin- 
stead. — Cultivation of Jamaica. — Return to Kingston. 

March 1. We now were bent on seeing some of 
the interior of the island, so hired a carriage for 
three or four days to take us another tour, — to 
Spanish Town, Linstead, and the Moneague. As 
Morris had supplied such bad horses, we went to 
another Israelite, Morrice, and thought that we 
could not again encounter such sorry hacks ; but 
we found to our cost that there is always, or 
nearly always, " a worse." 

In the afternoon of a hot day, we took the 
train to Spanish Town, hereby saving a long dusty 
drive ; our carriage and horses were to follow in 
the evening. After our experience of Jamaica, 
we might have expected the railroad from King- 
ston to Spanish Town to be bad, but still we were 
surprised at the disreputable look of the whole 
concern. The first-class carriages were worse than 
English third-class, and consisted of a dirty-look- 
ing truck, with six dusty armchairs in it, and 



54 



MISS STEWART S. 



there we took our places. In the other carriages 
were quantities of noisy, happy niggers ; and 
there was a brisk trade in cakes, sweets, or candies 
as they called them in the United States, on the 
platform, — everything else seemed defunct. How- 
ever, at last we started, and the dirty rail jolted 
us safely to the dirty station of Spanish Town, 
whence a dirty omnibus took us to the town, and 
deposited us at the door of the lodging-house 
which had been recommended to us, namely, Miss 
Stewart's. 

Miss Stewart — a fat, good-tempered mulatto- 
woman — welcomed us most cordially, never ask- 
ing who we were or where we came from, though 
we had been before told we ought to have a letter 
of introduction. This sort of nonsense seems to 
pervade most of the West Indies ; everyone pre- 
tending to be above their business, and. affecting 
that they have been used to better things, and 
seeming to fancy that some day they will see 
good times again. However, Miss Stewart had 
no such nonsense, but busied herself to make us 
comfortable. " Kill you a fowl for dinner ; fish ; 
— callipever very good ; laike pepper-pot 1 — No 
handle to the door, put a chair against it when 
you inside," etc., etc. So then dressing ourselves 
respectably, we walked to the King's House to call 
on the Governor, and were most kindly received 
by him and Mrs. Eyre. We found we had crossed 



SPANISH TOWN. 



55 



a letter to ask us to dine there the next day, but 
could not now, as we were on our journey. 

King's House is well built and arranged, with 
large cool reception-rooms, and the whole square 
looks handsome • but how shall I describe the 
rest of Spanish Town ? I thought Kingston was 
bad, dirty, and ruinous, and I fancied I had seen 
some funny specimens of towns in South America 
and Africa, and such like countries, but Spanish 
Town is the worst I have ever seen ; and it has 
not even the charm of being foreign, which often 
makes dirt and rubbish picturesque. But here 
was an English negro town of the very worst 
style. It never could have been good, for the 
houses are small and ill-built, streets hot, for the 
buildings are low, and let in all the sun. The 
houses are all in ruins, and the climate too dry to 
make them pretty with tropical vegetation ; every- 
thing was tumbling down, or propped up, which 
looks even worse. Where the roofs were strong 
enough, I saw cactus growing on them. The 
square brick pillars which sometimes inclose the 
houses, I saw propped up with wooden stakes. 
The churches were in the worst style of archi- 
tecture ; — in fact, everything was the same. The 
negroes talk a lingo which is difficult to under- 
stand, and seem to do little but quarrel in the 
street. The only thing in favour of Spanish 
Town was that it was cooler than Kingston ; — 



56 



DRIVE THROUGH BOG WALK. 



at least Miss Stewart's was a cool house, and we 
slept comfortably there. 

The next morning the carriage, a light Yankee 
one, came to the door, but when I saw the ponies, — 
they could not be called horses, — my mind mis- 
gave me. They put me in mind of the cabman's 
horse that the boy said had been fed on sugar- 
tubs, because he could see the hoops in him : but 
we were obliged to start, and as we had but one 
portmanteau, we knew that we should not over- 
load them, and so hoped for the best. The road 
for the first four miles was uninteresting, but after 
that we entered a pretty valley, and drove through 
the famous Bog Walk. The valley is narrow, and 
in most places there is only room for the road and 
the beautiful Eio Cobre, — a clear rushing stream, 
like a large Welsh brook. The hills were covered 
with forest, and the stream was overhung with all 
sorts of tropical trees. Palms, bamboos, and dif- 
ferent forest trees, covered with creepers and 
orchids ; and all sorts of ferns grew among the 
rocks. For four miles this was one of the most 
lovely drives I have ever seen, and every turn 
of the valley disclosed some new beauty. We 
then came out into the large wide expanse of St. 
Thomas in the Vale. As the Bog Walk is the 
outlet of this valley, it seems to have derived its 
name from the corruption of the Spanish word, 
Boca, as it is the mouth of the valley, and it 



VILLAGE OF L1NSTEAD. 57 

acquired its present appellation in the same way 
as the Bogue forts and Bocca Tigris, between 
Macao and Canton. The Eio Cobre still retains 
its Spanish name ; but I w T as much puzzled to 
see that, on the milestones by the side of the road, 
the distance was measured from " Santiago de la 
Vega." The driver could not explain it, and knew 
of no place of that name ; but I found that it 
was the original name of Spanish Town, and that 
it was still used in all official documents, or those 
sort of things. The English are fond of altering 
foreign names, and usually do not improve them ; 
but there are so many Santiagos in Spain, Chili, 
Mexico, and Cuba, that there may be some excuse 
for changing this. 

Soon after leaving the Bog Walk, we came to 
the large village of Linstead, where we were to 
breakfast and to rest the horses. The " Tavern" 
was clean, but had not much in it besides furni- 
ture ; however, we sent out and got bread, eggs, 
coffee, and milk, and so did well. Leaving Lin- 
stead, we drove on towards the mountains, along 
the sides of one of which, Mount Diavolo, the road 
to the Moneague ascends. We passed along a very 
pretty road, and in one place the bamboos were 
most magnificent. Some blacks were making a 
fence here, and I got one of them to cut me a few 
lengths of bamboo with their cutlasses, and I 
brought them to England as specimens. These 



58 THE VILLAGE SCHOOL. 

cutlasses are called machete in Cuba and the 
Spanish islands, and are sometimes called machet 
in English. They are large knives, with wooden 
handles and blades about two feet long, made 
just like a Turkish yataghan ; like them they 
have no guard, but are rather broader than the 
yataghan in the blade. Every negro carries one 
when he goes into the woods, and the sugar-canes 
are cut with them. In hostile encounters they 
become most -formidable weapons ; indeed, some- 
times, in St. Domingo, the Spanish troops have 
been attacked and defeated by negroes armed 
only with these cutlasses. 

We again stopped near the foot of the mountain, 
at a place called Ewarton, to rest and feed the 
horses, which already had given signs of their 
weakness, — one jibbing at the least ascent, and 
the other being unable to draw the carriage. 
Here at Ewarton we rested an hour and a half, 
and the owner of the sort of roadside grog-shop 
provided grass for the horses, and chairs for us to 
sit in the shade. We also got bread, sardines, 
and oranges, so made our luncheon. Liquors, of 
course, are to be found everywhere in Jamaica ; — 
Edinburgh ale, champagne, and everything of 
that sort, are to be bought in these shops, and 
they are generally supplied with tins of salmon, 
oysters, sardines, and other things, that come from 
England, but of West Indian produce, — nothing. 



MOUNT D1AVOLO. 



59 



To pass away the time, we went to see the vil- 
lage school, which was close by, indeed, within 
hearing distance ; and in a large thatched and 
wattled room we found the black schoolmaster 
teaching about twenty young negroes of both 
sexes. They appeared to be quite as far advanced 
as the children in most village schools in England, 
and they seemed very sharp ; their black beady 
eyes almost starting out of their heads with eager- 
ness as we questioned them : but as their master 
taught them with the peculiar nigger pronuncia- 
tion of English, making such words as "oak," 
" road/' into two syllables, viz., o-arh, ro-ard, it 
was not likely that they would speak very well 
when they grew up. 

We now started for the ascent of Mount Dia- 
volo, but long before we had accomplished a 
quarter of the ascent, we had to get out and walk, 
and rest the horses about every hundred yards. 
The view over the parish of St. Thomas in the Vale 
was most magnificent. The vale was tolerably flat, 
but surrounded on all sides by mountains, and 
behind the first ones rose the Blue Mountains, 
and the Port Eoyal range. It was for the most 
part thickly wooded, though striped here and 
there with the bright green of sugar estates. The 
shoulders of Mount Diavolo, on each side of us, 
were clothed with thick forest, and from among 
the trees blue columns of smoke arose, showing 



60 



THE MONEAGUE. 



where the blacks were clearing patches of land 
for cultivation. In the foreground were negro 
houses, surrounded with bananas, orange-trees 
covered with both fruit and blossom, and a mass 
of tropical vegetation, and over all waved tall 
cocoa-nut trees. I made a sketch while resting 
the horses. The second part of the ascent was 
much worse than the first. The jibber now 
would not work at all, so the driver had to pull 
him on by the bridle whilst 1 ran by his side with 
a whip ; and thus, by a few yards at a time, we 
journeyed up the hill, to the immense amusement 
of all the little nigger children, who rushed out of 
their huts to look at us. In due time we arrived 
at the summit, which was a deep cutting in the 
hill, ornamented with beautiful bamboos, and 
began our descent to the Moneague. 

First, the road wound round the shoulders of 
the wooded hills, and then descended through a 
grass country, with here and there a "pen," or 
gentleman's house. There were plenty of cattle 
in the pastures, but as far as we could see of 
them, the "pens" were in the usual state of 
neglect and apparent ruin. We passed some 
large trees with magnificent broad-leaved creepers 
climbing up them, and soon after arrived at the 
Moneague. 

The Moneague is a scattered village, and boasts 
rather a good tavern, and, for a wonder, there was 



SUGAR ESTATE. 61 

something to eat in it, and to make the wonder 
greater, they gave ns almost the only tender piece 
of meat I met with in Jamaica, viz,, the head and 
forequarter of a sucking pig. We talk of tough 
meat in England, but no one can imagine what 
meat is in the West Indies, — the hardness and 
stringiness make it almost uneatable. The bill 
next morning was tremendous ; the horses' corn, 
bundles of grass, and their being turned out, were 
all charged separately ; and on my expostulating 
with the black waiter about it, he said, coolly, 
" Ah ! it is three shillings more, as I forgot to 
charge for your bedroom." The bill amounted to 
about twenty-four shillings altogether. However, 
we paid, and started on our return, and the horses 
dragged us up this side of the mountain better 
than they had up the other, for the sun as yet 
had hardly risen high enough to shine over the 
hill, and it was a little cooler for them. 

The view over St. Thomas in the Vale looked 
quite as beautiful as it did the clay before ; and as 
it was early, it was a little clearer, and we saw the 
range of the Blue Mountains plainer. We stopped 
again at Ewarton to bait the horses, and were 
much pleased to see the humming birds in the 
trees behind the house, — they would allow us to 
come very close and look at them, not being dis- 
turbed by the people living there. 

Before we got to Linsteacl, we turned aside to 



62 



INDOLENCE OF NEGROES. 



see a sugar estate, and were shown over it with 
great civility by the manager, a Scotchman. This 
estate was not large, and was worked in the old- 
fashioned way, — without steam. The crushing- 
mill was turned by bullocks, about twelve being 
harnessed to it at once. The juice was conveyed 
from the mill to the boiling-house, where it was 
converted into sugar ; and behind, a still was in 
operation making rum. The cane, after the juice 
is pressed from it, is called trash, and is stacked 
in a house and kept dry, and is then used as fuel 
to boil the sugar, — and so we saw the whole pro- 
cess. There seemed to be no want of labour just 
here, but the negroes, when they work at all, do 
but little : they go into the field at six o'clock and 
leave it at ten, considering that that is a day's 
work, and at least two days in the week they do 
nothing at all, — one being market-day, is quite a 
sufficient excuse for idleness. 

This indolence entirely prevents the culture of 
cotton, which might be produced to any extent in 
Jamaica : but cotton must be picked exactly 
when it is ripe, whereas sugar may wait for a 
week or two without deteriorating, and a shower 
of rain does it no harm, but rather the contrary. 
It seems a great pity that the cultivation of a rich 
country, such as this, should be entirely stopped ; 
but it is quite natural that idle people — or indeed 
any people — would rather live as they can on 



NATIVE PRODUCE. 



63 



the scanty produce of their own ground, than 
work for somebody else ; and if it were not that 
the negroes are the most improvident race in the 
world, in a short time there would be no one to 
work in the fields in Jamaica, — and it is my 
opinion that by degrees as the blacks acquire 
land and grow patches of cane for themselves, 
they will supply the sugar, and the large estates 
must go out of cultivation for want of hired 
labour. 

We slept that night at Linstead, and our dinner 
was entirely of English produce, except the eggs : 
we had ham, preserved salmon, Scotch ale, green- 
gage jam, and orange marmalade ; and this in a 
country where every sort of fruit is grown, and 
oranges hang on every tree ; and yet they import 
marmalade from England, where it is made with 
sugar which they themselves have sent there. The 
bread, too, is made of American flour. Thus, 
hardly anything is of native produce. We slept 
at night with all the windows open of course, and 
the air was quite loaded with the scent of orange 
blossoms, several trees in full flower being near 
the house. It rained heavily, which cooled the 
air, but it hardly laid the dust in the roads. 

In the morning, a neatly dressed mulatto-girl 
walked into the room, and addressed Mrs. Elwes, 
"May I stay with you V Mrs. E. said " Yes," 



64 



RETURN TO KINGSTON. 



not knowing quite what she meant, but thought 
she wished to stay from curiosity to see her 
clothes, and other things, remembering that they 
often did so in Norway. She went on : " You 
are going to England ; may I go with you V then 
we began to see what she wanted, and found that 
she wished to go with us, as a servant, to England, 
without wages or anything. That we could not 
agree to, as it was rather too far to risk carrying 
a servant of that sort, who would most likely be 
quite useless, or more probably a perfect nuisance 
when she was there ; so we left her and drove off. 
It was market-clay, and the street was crowded 
with negroes, and from one we bought twenty- 
five oranges for twopence ; they were excellent 
oranges, very sweet and juicy, but with thick, 
rough skins. I at first refused them, choosing the 
smooth-looking ones, but a policeman, who was 
keeping order, showed me which were the best. 

We went slowly through the Bog Walk again, 
I stopping to sketch, Mrs. E. to collect ferns. — 
The passers by all w T arned her against the insects. 
" Missus, you go into the bush you get plenty of 
wood-ticks," and she found out afterwards to her 
cost that they were right. As we drove towards 
Spanish Town, a woman stopped us to sell star- 
apples ; we bought some, and certainly they were 
a delicious fruit to eat in the heat of the day. 
The inside is like cream and custard, and very 



DETVE TO KINGSTON. 



65 



sweet and refreshing, and the pulp mixed in a 
tumbler with the pulp of an orange, and a little 
broken ice, is delicious. We dined at Spanish 
Town at Miss Stewart's, and drove to Kingston in 
the cool of the evening. This road, for twelve 
miles, is through a flat swampy country, and 
appears the very hotbed of malaria and mosquitoes. 
There was nothing of interest, except some fine 
specimens of the barren fig-tree, with enormous 
trunks and buttresses projecting on all sides, and 
the marsh by the sides of the road was full of 
tall ferns. 



f 



66 



CHAPTEE IX. 

Visit to Flamstead. — The Mango-tree and Plantain. — The 
Fourcroya Gigantea. — Morant Bay. — Its Inhabitants. — 
Reception at Blocksberg. — Scenery of Jamaica. — Its 
present condition. 

Maech 6th. Governor Eyre kindly invited us to 
stay a short time at Flamstead, his country-house, 
on the top of one of the Port Eoyal mountains, 
and we were to meet him and Mrs. Eyre at the 
Gardens, which place is situated at the foot of the 
mountain-paths, one of which leads to Newcastle, 
the other up a side valley to Flamstead. I wished 
to go up to Newcastle again, to make a drawing 
of the tree-ferns on St. Catherine's Peak, and had 
prepared so to do, intending to sleep at the Gar- 
dens if I could get no other resting-place ; but on 
the clay before, Captain K — , an officer of Engi- 
neers, came down to Kingston, and asked us to go 
to Newcastle, as Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean were to 
dine at the mess of the 6th Eegiment, on the in- 
vitation of Colonel Hobbs, and we were to meet 
them. This altered our arrangements ; and as 
Captain K/s carriage was to return to the Gardens 
on Tuesday morning, Mrs. E — and I went in it 




T KE FE B,23 Wl L K 



t> 



NEWCASTLE. 



67 



for that distance, and then took riding-horses as 
before up to Newcastle. 

We rode up to Captain K/s quarters, and 
leaving our horses there, went off immediately 
to the fern walk. I worked at my drawing for 
some time, whilst Mrs. E — collected ferns. We 
then returned to the barracks : but it seems that 
the officers of the Sixth had had some quarrel 
among themselves (though we did not know what 
it was about) so we were not asked to dine at the 
mess, and had to accept Captain K/s hospitality. 
He also borrowed a room for us, otherwise we 
must have gone back to Kingston, or risked some 
sort of a shake-down at the excellent Lazarus's. 

The next morning I was up in good time to 
finish my sketch, but soon the mists rose up from 
the northern side of the mountain, and actually 
turning to rain, I was driven back for shelter. 
After breakfast, we wished Captain K — and Co- 
lonel Hobbs farewell, the latter apologising much 
to us (but what about we did not know), and then 
we rode down again to the Gardens, wondering 
much at the behaviour of the officers of the 
Sixth. 

We stayed at the Gardens till four o'clock, 
when the Governor and Mrs. Eyre drove up. 
Thev had sent saddle-horses for us down from 
Flamstead, so we mounted, and rode off directly. 
The path led up a beautiful side valley, down 



68 



VEGETATION. 



which rushes a clear rivulet to join the larger 
stream at the Gardens. The vegetation was 
luxuriant, the lower part of the dell filled with 
great plantains, the sides of the hills covered with 
mango-trees ; in fact, there are such numbers of 
these, that there are not enough pigs to eat the 
fruit that falls. The best mango in Jamaica is 
called "No. 11," that variety being so labelled 
when it was introduced. The plantain, or banana, 
thrives everywhere; and if the people had any 
industry, I should think that it would answer to 
grow the other variety, Musa textilis, of the stalk 
of which Manilla hemp is made. The plantain 
suits a lazy people well. It requires planting but 
once ; for the old stem being cut down after fruit- 
ing, numbers of suckers spring up from the roots. 
The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked ; and it 
will produce more nutritive matter on a given 
quantity of land, than any other plant. The 
leaves are useful for a number of purposes ; in 
Tahiti they will make a house of them in a few 
minutes ; but here the blacks have lost the useful 
arts of savage life, and learnt but few of those of 
civilisation. 

Half-way to Flamstead is a coffee plantation, 
called Dublin Castle, and that being passed, the 
ascent becomes very steep ; the path, however, 
was good, the horses were accustomed to it, and 
we cantered along at the edge of the precipices 



FLAMSTEAD. 



69 



without fear of tumbling over. From one steep 
ridge, called "John Crow's tavern/' — a sort of 
backbone between two gullies, — there was a splen- 
did view, looking down the valley ; the Newcastle 
hills on the right, another range of the Port Koyal 
mountains on the left, and in front the distant 
plain of Kingston, — all bathed in the golden light 
of the setting sun. 

Flamstead is a very comfortable house, but of 
one story only. It is situated on the very top of 
one of the mountains which overlook Kingston, 
and being 3,800 feet above the sea, we found it 
delightfully cool,— indeed, we had a fire in the 
drawing-room in the evening. 

The next morning we set out for a long ride to 
another gentleman's house on the summit of a 
neighbouring mountain. The path wound round 
the sides of the hills and along the edge of steep 
ravines, along places which would utterly prevent 
nervous people from going there at all. The 
views down into the valleys were very fine ; and 
from one spot we saw the whole of the Blue 
Mountain, with all its shoulders, ravines, and but- 
tresses, from top to bottom. A few light clouds 
hung about the summit, but occasionally they 
blew away, and we then saw the peak plainly. 
It is a fine mountain, and the highest peak is said 
to be 7,360 feet above the sea. We arrived at 
Blocksberg, — a pretty one-storied house, — about 



70 



MORANT BAY. 



noon. We put up our horses, but found that the 
owner was not at home. From the garden was a 
splendid view, looking right over Kingston and Port 
Koyal, and in front was a fine jumble of moun- 
tains and steep-sided ravines ; those below opened 
out to the Yallah river, and the next valley beyond 
ran down to MorantBay.* On the lawn in front was 
a fine specimen of an aloe, about thirty feet high. I 
think it was a Brazilian aloe, Fourcroya gigantea 
■ — the flower was gone, but it was covered with 
seeds. Looking over the mountains and valleys 

* Since the above was written, Morant Bay became noto- 
rious as the place where the insurrection of the negroes 
broke out, and where such fearful scenes of bloodshed took 
place. There seems to be no doubt but that this insurrec- 
tion was the premature explosion of a plot against the 
white population of Jamaica ; and the probable cause of 
these disturbances is the foolish idea of giving black people 
the same rights, and making them politically equal with 
whites. These sort of countries must be either white or 
black, — one must be the governing power. In St. Domingo 
the negro is at the head of affairs ; in British islands the 
whites should have the power. In Jamaica, the whites 
number about 15,000, the negroes 400,000 ; — if once the 
latter had got possession of the island, it would have cost 
thousands of lives and ten thousands of pounds to have 
reconquered it. But fortunately we had the brave and 
determined Eyre at the head of affairs, — one who would 
take decided measures, and risk the responsibility of doing 
so ; and being ably seconded by Nelson and Hobbs, this 
dreadful rebellion was checked, put down, and utterly 
crushed out at once, and Jamaica — and perhaps all our 
West Indian possessions — were saved. 



RECEPTION AT BLOCKSBERG. 7 1 

the lights and shades from the passing clouds 
were magnificent ; but they soon gathered thickly 
around, and we had hardly entered the house, 
when the rain descended in torrents, and we were 
most thankful we had so good a shelter as Blocks- 
berg. 

Though the owner was not at home, he was 
expected that day, and as the Governor had sent 
a boy on before to say we were coming, the ser- 
vants expected us. The cook brought out some 
wine, and prepared a fowl for our luncheon. At 
a quarter past one o'clock it was ready, and just 
going to be served up, and as the ride and cool 
mountain-air had made us very hungry, we were 
quite prepared to do justice to it, when who 
should ride up but the owner. He came in, and 
welcomed us most warmly, but no luncheon fol- 
lowed him ; — nothing was good enough for us, — 
hampers were unpacked, delicacies put down to 
be cooked, tins of salmon and oysters opened, — 
the mule that was coming up from Kingston with 
other wines and beer was waited for, and although 
we begged him not to give himself so much 
trouble (for we were starving all the time), he 
would not listen, but everything must be done to 
honour us. We were famished, and it was just 
four o'clock before we sat down to the luncheon 
that we had been expecting since one o'clock. At 
4 "15, we had to start on our return ; for the rain 



72 SCENERY OF JAMAICA. 

had hardly ceased, and a thick black-looking fog 
covered the hills, and as darkness comes on very 
rapidly, it is better not to be caught by night, 
and in such weather, on these precipitous paths. 
So we wished our kind friend good-bye, though 
he wished us to stay all night, and arrived at 
Flamstead without accident before seven o'clock. 

We left Flamstead with regret the next morn- 
ing after breakfast, our kind host lending us 
horses to ride down to the Gardens, and most 
excellent beasts they were. Strong and sure- 
footed, they seemed to go up and down the 
steepest places with but little exertion, and unlike 
all the other horses that we had ridden or driven 
in Jamaica, they had some flesh on their bones. 
Our luggage was carried down on two boys' heads, 
a small boy, about thirteen, carrying a portman- 
teau. We passed him at Dublin Castle, but 
had to wait a long time at the Gardens for him ; 
it was too much of a load, and at last when he 
came he was quite exhausted, and crying because 
he knew he was late ; however, a little extra pay 
soon set him right again. Our horses returned to 
Flamstead, and we drove off in one of Mr. 
Lazarus's carriages to Kingston. 

Jamaica is certainly a most beautiful island in 
the way of scenery, and if well cultivated, would 
be most productive ; it was so once, — at least 
everyone says so, — but the rich people of those 



POSITION OF PLANTERS. 



73 



days did but little good in their generation. No 
public works seem to have been done, — no quays, 
no bridges, no works for irrigation, — no churches 
nor buildings of any sort ; everything seemed to 
have gone on for the time only, and everyone 
seemed to have lived in a fast, low-lived style. 
They appear to have made money enough and 
spent it foolishly, or else taken it to England and 
spent it there. Eesidents now like to talk of the 
good old times, and to boast of the luxury, the 
hospitality, and the grand style in which people 
formerly lived. But I never saw a house which 
might have been a good one ; and though cer- 
tainly everything decays here quickly, yet there 
are no remains of anything which might give us 
an idea of greatness. In other tropical countries 
it is not so ; in Manilla, for instance, there are 
old stone houses with balustrades, and broad steps 
leading down to the water ; but in Jamaica there 
is nothing. And now that the money is gone, 
the source of wealth is gone, and everything 
seems to be in a pitiable state. Certainly the 
planters appear to have been hardly treated. 
Slavery being abolished, of course all their former 
ways of working their estates were knocked on 
the head. They then had to begin afresh ; and 
when labour became scarcer, and therefore sugar 
more expensive to produce, they had to compete 
with the sugar from places like Cuba, where 



74 



STATE OF JAMAICA. 



the Spaniards still hold their slaves. Tobacco 
they might grow ; but there the excise and 
Havana again were in their way. Cotton might 
answer ; but cotton must be gathered exactly 
when it is ripe, or one storm of rain may ruin it, 
and then perhaps not a black would work w T hen 
they were most wanted. Bum is produced on 
every sugar estate, and can be sold at the still at 
eighteen pence per gallon ; but what sort of duty 
do we put on, this production of our colony % nine 
shillings per gallon ! So that which is one of our 
best and most wholesome liquors, is nearly ex- 
cluded by this tremendous impost. However, I 
suppose it has been all known, considered, and 
wrangled over ; but it is difficult to see at once 
in what the benefit of all these regulations exists ; 
we see the result, and we see what a state Jamaica 
is in, but what can you expect of a place where 
blacks are allowed to be magistrates, and where 
there are nigger members of Council % 



75 



CHAPTEE X. 

Voyage to St. Domingo. — Distance from Kingston to 
Jacmel, and from Jacmel to St. Thomas's. — Hotels. 
— Sanitary state of St. Thomas's. —Its Steam Fleet. — 
The prevailing Language. 

We left Kingston on the 11th, in the Tamar, 
for St. Domingo and St. Thomas's ; and as we 
steamed slowly down the harbour towards Port 
Eoyal, the whole place looked most lovely. We 
could not see the dirt and ruin of the town, and 
everything was dressed in its best. A blue mist 
hung over Kingston and the plain beyond, and all 
the precipitous sides of the ravines and shoulders 
of the mountains caught the gleams of the early 
sun. Above all, — at this hour without his usual 
robe of cloud, — the peak of the Blue Mountain 
towered into the clear sky. The bay was like 
glass, and all the buildings, cocoa-nut trees, and 
ships at their anchorage, were reflected on its 
surface. Two or three long-masted schooners, 
with their white sails, were trying to get out, and 
floated lazily about, waiting for the sea breeze. 
Everything looked beautiful ; but our paddles 
soon bore us away, and having stopped to pick 
up the mails at Port Eoyal, we got out to sea, 



76 



THE HOTELS. 



and stood along the southern coast of Jamaica for 
Hayti, or St. Domingo. 

Kingston to Jacmel is 255 miles ; that was our 
first stopping place, where we landed the mails 
and took in some passengers, one of them a great 
jet-black negro, a near relation to Soulouque, I 
believe ; he took a first-class passage to England. 
From Jacmel to St. Thomas's, 470 miles. At 
St. Thomas's we had to stay two whole days, 
and our time hung heavy on our hands ; it is a 
pretty island, but there is nothing to do and 
nothing to see. It is too hot to walk about much, 
and carriage hire — and indeed everything else — 
is very dear. One day we thought to take a 
drive to pass away the time ; so I asked a black 
fellow, who had just set down some people from 
his two-horse carriage, what he would charge, — 
" five dollars an hour," was the answer ; so having 
no particular reason for a drive, I left him. St. 
Thomas's boasts of two pretty-fair hotels, — one 
kept by an Italian, named Bonelli, is the best, but 
it was full ; so we went to the Commercial. We 
dined at the table d'hote, in a wide verandah 
overlooking the harbour, and they treated us 
pretty well. Ice was plentiful, indeed it is the 
greatest luxurj^ here, and has become almost a 
necessity. The Danish government allows the 
monopoly of selling ice to one house, which is 
bound under a heavy penalty never to be without 



SANITARY STATE OF ST. THOMAS'S. 77 

a supply. The fruit-market, with its avenue of 
cocoa-nut trees, was an amusing scene, and fur- 
nished me with a good subject to draw. 

St. Thomas's has a bad reputation for sickness, 
and it has often suffered severely from yellow 
fever. It is thought that this unhealthiness pro- 
ceeds from the water in the harbour becoming 
stagnant. The entrance is narrow, and it is very 
full of shipping ; therefore a great deal of dirt is 
collected, and as there is hardly any tide, the 
water gets loaded with filth, and is for a long 
time unchanged. But we hear more of these 
West Indian fevers when we are in England than 
out here ; and frequently we did not know 
whether the islands we had visited were in a 
healthy state or not until we read about them in 
the English papers. 

It seems very odd, with so many islands in 
our possession, that the West Indian Mail Com- 
pany should choose this, a Danish island, as the 
rendezvous of their immense steam-fleet : but it 
has a good harbour, and is so situated that all the 
lines conveniently meet here. There was some 
idea of a change, and making their depot at An- 
tigua. Although it is a Danish island, English 
is the general language, and I do not think the 
negroes understand a single word of Danish. 



78 



CHAPTER XI. 

Voyage to St. Thomas's. — St. Eustatius. — Gluadaloupe. — 
Dominica — La Rosseau, the Capital. — Martinique. — 
Volcanic appearances of the Mountains. 

March 1 7th. We left St. Thomas's at noon, in 
the Derwent, for the Windward Islands, and as 
we steamed out of the bay the white-looking 
town, backed with mountains, made a very pretty 
looking panorama. Then we found ourselves 
amongst a cluster of islands, — Tortola and St. 
John's to the northwards, — and passed by a steep 
isolated rock called "Frenchman's Cap." The 
next morning, at daybreak, we sighted St. Eusta- 
tius, or, as the blacks call it, " Statia," a perfect 
cone, 1,950 high, with a notch in the summit, 
which was formerly the crater, and soon after- 
wards we arrived at St. Christopher's, or as it is 
usually called, St. Kitt's. This is a high, steep 
island, about eighteen miles long, running up to 
a cone in the middle, but its long sloping sides 
are very favourable to the growth of sugar ; they 
are therefore carefully cultivated, and appeared 
divided into squares of different coloured greens. 
It is in a thriving state, and exports a good deal 



ANTIGUA. 



79 



of sugar. The highest mountain is called Mount 
Misery, and its summit is 4,315 feet above the 
level of the sea. The chief town is called Basse- 
terre, distant from St. Thomas's 150 miles. 

In the afternoon we passed Nevis. Its peak 
rising to the height of 3,595 feet, was dimly 
visible to us through torrents of rain. From St. 
Kitt's we went seventy miles to Antigua, and 
entered its fine harbour ; but it was dusk by the 
time we were anchored, so we saw little of it. 
It appeared to be an excellent harbour, sheltered 
by moderately high hills from all winds. 

Directly we anchored, the shore-boats crowded 
round the steamer, with pines, oranges, bananas, 
and all sorts of fruit. The noise and squabbling 
among the blacks was extraordinary, and not a 
few female voices (for in most of the boats were 
women to sell the fruit) joined in to increase the 
hubbub ; one man in his eagerness fell into the 
water between the boats, but was soon fished out 
again, and the pulling, pushing, and quarrelling 
then was renewed with greater vigour than before. 
The name of the chief town is St. John's ; and 
the island is famous for its pines, — the black An- 
tigua variety being known all over the world. 

From Antigua we went sixty-eight miles to the 
French island of Guaclaloupe, and got there before 
daylight. There was no lighthouse, and as it was 
very thick cloudy weather, we had to lie off for 



80 



DOMINICA. 



some time before we could go up to the town. Pre- 
sently the fog lifted and disclosed the whole scene. 
The island is very steep and high, and seems broken 
into numerous ravines and valleys. At the south 
end, the Soufriere rises to the height of 5,500 
feet. All the upper parts of the mountains are 
clothed with thick forests ; below them is culti- 
vated land, with bright green patches of sugar- 
cane. The chief town, Basseterre, is neat and 
flourishing,— in fact, the towns on the islands be- 
longing to other powers bear rather a favourable 
contrast with the British possessions in the West 
Indies. 

Leaving Guadaloupe, we ran fifty-three miles 
to Dominica, which was in sight the whole dis- 
tance. This was a magnificent-looking island, 
mountainous, and broken into great valleys, — Ku- 
pert's Cape, stretching out on the north coast, 
looking dark against the light blue beyond ; 
all the higher shoulders of the mountains were 
clothed with wood, making one wish to land and 
explore the tempting-looking ravines. A few 
wreaths of blue smoke, curling up above the 
trees, showed where they were burning the wood, 
and clearing patches of land for cultivation. The 
officer, when he went on shore to land the mails, 
gave me a seat in his boat, so I had an opportu- 
nity of seeing La Eosseau, the capital of the 
island. We landed at a poor, broken pier, and 



JAIL STREET. 



81 



walked np to the post-office to deliver the mails. 
It was a wretched town, not quite in such a 
dusty, ruinous state as Kingston, but still utterly 
without any signs of prosperity. The street was 
called Jail Street, as a passing nigger told me, 
and seemed one of the chief streets of the town, 
or village, as we might rather call it, — for it was 
only a collection of rubbishy bungalow kind of 
houses. Once it was paved ; but now the grass 
had grown between all the stones, and that was 
killed and withered by the drought : nature had 
done something to ornament it, but human art- — 
nothing. A blue mountain at the end of the 
street, some tall cocoa-nut trees waving above the 
houses, and flowers, — wherever they had a chance 
to grow, — gave a little beauty to the scene. I 
saw, hanging over one wall, great masses of that 
beautiful creeper, the blue Clitorea, covered with 
blossoms ; on another wall was a lilac creeper, 
the name of which I know not, but I gathered 
seeds from all. 

Having delivered the mail-bags, we returned 
to the steamer, and soon were again under weigh. 
As we left the island, it looked still more beau- 
tiful. A little beyond the town is a great steep 
mountain running down to the water, called, I 
think, Scot's Head ; and then, having passed the 
south-west end of the island, we saw the coast 
trending eastward, and it formed one of the most 

Gr 



82 



VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS. 



noble combinations of mountain, valley, and pro- 
montory that I had ever seen. 

Martinique, our next stopping place, was in 
sight when we left Dominica, for forty -nine miles 
only divided the two islands. But I thought we 
should never get there, for the Derwent was so 
slow, that we got later and later at every place. 
This was a great nuisance to us, as it made our 
short time of staying still shorter. Martinique 
seen from a distance is a perfect cone, deeply 
furrowed with ravines, which seem to radiate 
from the summit. It has two peaks ; the height 
of Mont Pelee is 4433 feet, of the Pitons 3960 
feet, and up to these it seems to run very regu- 
larly from all sides. All these West Indian 
islands are of volcanic origin, and most of them 
are nothing more than extinct volcanoes : some, 
indeed, can hardly be called more than dormant, 
for they have had slight eruptions since they 
were discovered by Columbus. 

It is curious to trace the original form of the 
islands, all the mountains and valleys genera] ly 
taking their shape in uniformity with the main 
centre of eruption. Often, when near the island 
it is difficult to perceive this, but as you sail 
away, gradually each mountain and valley seems 
to fall into its proper position, and all point 
out where their great origin has been. In such 
islands as St. Eustatius it is easy enough ; they 



RAIN-FALLS. 83 

look like cones furrowed on all sides from the 
top, which is flattened, but in many large islands, 
such as Dominica and Guadaloupe, it is not so 
easy, and often there is more than one centre of 
eruption. The force of volcanic fire has raised 
these islands from the sea, but the power of water 
is continually at work to wear them down, and 
thus ravines and valleys are made, and at the 
mouth of them flat sloping plains. These plains 
have not often been formed in the West Indies, as 
the sea is usually deep, and has received and 
swallowed up all that has been carried down from 
the mountains. Thus, it seems almost possible to 
judge the age of the island — of course I mean com- 
paratively speaking — by the amount of degrada- 
tion it has undergone from water. Probably in 
ages long past the amount of rain that fell was 
greater than now, though this last autumn a 
tremendous hurricane, accompanied by a great 
fall of rain, passed over Gruadaloupe and the ad- 
jacent islands, destroying an immense deal of pro- 
perty, and causing the loss of several lives. These 
sudden falls of rain happen occasionally in other 
countries ; for in Basil Hall's amusing account of 
Madeira, he tells us how even houses were car- 
ried down the great barrancas which run through 
the town of Funchal, and how on that occasion 
the torrent filled them to the brim. The Gali- 
pagos near the coast of Peru, form one of the 

Gr 2 



84 



MO UNA KEA. 



newest groups of volcanic islands. There is but 
little water, and their original cones are nearly 
perfect, but it does not appear to me that all 
valleys owe their origin entirely to water, though 
that is now the opinion of many competent ob- 
servers. In the Sandwich islaud group, Hawaii 
is the largest island, and it consists chiefly of 
two volcanoes, Mouna Eoa and Mouna Kea (the 
great crater of Kiruea being only a secondary 
crater to them). Now, if Mouna Kea, the height 
of which is about fourteen thousand feet, is seen 
as I saw it once from the distance of about twelve 
miles on the southern side, it appears to be a vast 
regular cone with numerous lame cracks radi- 
ating from the centre down to the sea ; and it is 
difficult to imagine anything but that they are 
cracks, and that the mountain has been lifted 
up from beneath and split by the operation. 
The slope of these mountains is very long and 
gradual, which is always the case when they are 
formed of successive layers of lava. Ashes make 
a tolerably steep cone, as at Vesuvius, but lava, 
as it is liquid, makes a very gradual slope. This 
shows that there were large eruptions, and that 
the streams of lava ran to the sea without cool- 
ing ; small eruptions will make much steeper 
inclines, the streams cooling and running over 
each other, and then they may be of any steep- 
ness ; indeed, I have in my possession a stalag- 



HAWAII. 



85 



mite of lava, which I got from out of a cave 
on one of the Sandwich islands, where the lava 
having dripped from the roof of the cave, every 
drop had nearly cooled before the next drop fell 
upon it, and so a little heap was produced. 

On the southern side of Hawaii, that island 
lying in the influence of the north-east trade 
winds, there is but little rain, and the lava be- 
tween Kailua and Kearakekua Bay looks quite 
fresh, black, and rugged, though that lava was 
thrown up before Cook discovered the islands, 
and there is hardly any water along that coast. 
Indeed, it now looks fresher than the lava that 
flowed a few years ago from Monte Eosso on 
Etna. On the north side of Hawaii, on the con- 
trary, where there are frequent rains, there are 
deep cut valleys and beautiful streams of water 
rushing down each of them, and on passing along 
the north coast, you may, at one view, count ten 
or twelve cascades falling over into the sea. The 
cliffs are composed of layers of lava, with earth 
between each of them, the top covered with soil, 
and old forests growing on it. Now all this lava 
has been thrown up from an unfathomable sea, the 
earth of course having been formed afterwards, and 
the main craters are at the elevation of fourteen 
thousand feet above its level, so what can be the 
date of such an island as this % far beyond the age 
that Brydone calculates for Etna. 



86 



TAHITI. 



The island of West Maui, with a crater of 
twenty miles in circumference at a height of 
10,000 feet above the sea, appears much more 
recent, and is therefore, like TenerifFe, much more 
porous ; and though when I was on the top I was 
caught by a heavy shower, brought by the north- 
east trade wind, yet there is hardly any water on 
the mountain. East Maui and Oahu are more 
broken up, and have large valleys and plenty of 
water, but at a distance the old volcanic slope can 
be traced. Tahiti seems older still ; deeper valleys, 
more streams of water, and altogether the moun- 
tain is so shattered that it is difficult to see where 
the original crater was ; indeed, if the Crown 
mountain is viewed from any of the adjacent 
peaks, it looks as if it had all tumbled in together, 
and left only one wall, or part of a wall, of the 
original cone. A lake in the other part of the 
island, which is said to be a crater, might once 
have been so perhaps, but the lake now has been 
formed from the damming up of a stream by the 
fall of one of the mountains. But if Tahiti is 
viewed at some miles distance, all the valleys run 
regularly from a centre, just like those of the 
West Indian Islands. It is generally easy to 
decide whether these hollows are craters or not ; 
but often places are called craters where every 
distinctive mark is gone. Aden is said to be one, 
and may be so, but I could see no reason to think 



VOLCANIC MATTER. 



87 



it ; though near, in the Eed Sea, there are some 
perfect cones of volcanoes, and we know that the 
whole district, particularly about the Dead Sea, is 
volcanic. The volcanoes of the Andes do not 
run their lava down in these long slopes, at least, 
none that I have seen ; for they have been forced 
up through more recent strata, and they are not 
composed, like the Sandwich Islands, of successive 
layers of lava, but of mountains of limestone and 
other late formations tilted up to an enormous 
height. 



88 



CHAPTER XII. 

St. Pierre. — St. Lucia. — Barbadoes. — The Grenadines. — 
Georgetown. — St. Vincent. 

At Martinique I did not go on shore, but Mrs. E. 
took advantage of a place in the mail officer's 
boat, and landed at St. Pierre, which is the chief 
town of the island. She was surprised at the 
goodness of the town, so unlike any other West 
Indian one we had seen. The houses are neither 
tumbling down nor propped up with stakes. The 
streets are well paved, with deep channels a foot 
deep and two feet wide, with a clear stream of 
water rushing through them. They are very narrow, 
with broad eaves to the houses, and consequently 
are very cool There is a large French cafe, with 
tempting tables, and the town also boasts two fine 
fountains. One hardly knows why " they do 
these things better in France," but certainly it 
often is the case, and what we do well in England 
has not generally been imitated in our colonies. 

Before Mrs. E. left the quay on her return to 
the steamer it was night, with the moon shining 
gloriously overhead. In the tropics you have no 



BARB A DOES. 



89 



twilight, therefore as soon as the sun goes clown it 
is dark. 

The next island was St. Lucia, distant only 
forty-five miles, and therefore we passed it in the 
night. We landed the mails at its chief town — 
Castries — but had left it a long time before day- 
break. From St. Lucia, one hundred and eight 
miles took us to Barbadoes, but being rather late in 
starting from Castries we did not arrive at Bridge- 
town till 5 p.m. Barbadoes, or " Little England," 
as the " Bims " proudly call it, is a low, ugly island 
of limestone-looking formation, entirely planted 
and cultivated throughout with sugar canes. The 
houses and barracks are remarkably weil built, the 
roads excellent, and the whole island highly civi- 
lised ; but nothing picturesque or interesting is to 
be seen. The " Bims ,; are noted for being the most 
conceited people in the world, and pride themselves 
on being the most loyal, but one hardly know r s in 
what their loyalty consists. They have a peculiar 
twang when speaking, w T hich makes them con- 
spicuous and at once known all over the West 
Indies. There were a great many ships in the 
harbour. We w 7 ent on shore at once, and landed 
near the barracks, and were met by Major B., w 7 ho 
took us to his house to see his wife, who had come 
out from Englaud with us. After a visit of half 
an hour w T e were obliged to leave, without being 
able to go into the town or call upon the illustrious 



90 



KINGSTOWN. 



Betsey Austin, if she still exists. The firing of 
the steamer's gun soon called us from shore, and 
our luggage having been transferred from the 
Derwent we went on board the Wye. 

The Wye was a small screw steamer which was 
to take us on to Trinidad, and leave us there for two 
days whilst she took the rest of the mails and pas- 
sengers on to Tobago. Another steamer branched 
off from here to Demerara, a distance of 392 
miles. The Wye had such a bad character for 
rolling that the nautical world asserted that even 
the officers were sea-sick ; but we found her 
very comfortable, and she was fast, and soon 
got over the ninety-five miles which divides 
Barbadoes from St. Vincent. We ran under a 
fine headland into a pretty bay, and anchored 
off the town, which rejoices in the name of Kings- 
town. Some well-built barracks were perched 
on the top of the headland, with an arched viaduct 
leading over a small ravine, and these buildings 
took the appearance of a fortress ; all looked well 
at a distance, but I heard that the buildings were 
now empty, and the barracks useless, though they 
had cost an immense sum to build. The troops 
were not thought necessary, and so were with- 
drawn. The town is very prettily situated, and 
has nice houses in it, but appears to have as little 
life in it as the others. 

St. Vincent is a high mountainous island, and 



GRENADA. 



91 



the scenery seemed very beautiful, but being only 
thirteen miles long and eight wide, it is not one 
of the largest. Like most of the other mountain- 
ous islands it is volcanic, and a few miles from 
the town is a soufriere, which still emits smoke 
and sulphurous vapour. It is a sight well worth 
seeing, and if I had had time I should have visited 
it, but horses were not to be easily got, indeed there 
are no ways of getting things quickly in these 
countries. St. Vincent is, I believe, the only 
island on which any of the aborigines exist. 

Between St. Vincent and Grenada, a distance 
of eighty-four miles, we passed a number of small 
islands called the Grenadines. They were mostly 
steep and rocky, with very picturesque outlines, 
but we were hardly near enough to see much of 
them. For a long distance we ran near the shore 
of Grenada, and it seemed even more beautiful 
than any island we had seen. Thick forests 
clothed the sides of the mountains, and there ap- 
peared less cultivated land than in the other 
islands. Grenada is but little larger than St. Vin- 
cent, being eighteen miles long and eight wide, 
but it is high, St. Catherine's mountain rising 
three thousand two hundred feet above the sea. 
As we ran along the coast I amused myself by 
making a water-coloured sketch from the deck of 
the steamer, but I found it very difficult to do. 
All the woods were bright rich green, with blue 



92 



GEORGETOWN. 



cobalt shadows, and the sea in front was of the 
deepest indigo. So, although the whole landscape 
was glowing under a tropical sun, the colouring 
was what is generally called cool. The fact is, 
when people want to give the idea of warmth, 
they put yellows, reds, and browns in their paint- 
ings, with a yellow sky, and a large red or dull 
coloured sun, whereas here the sky was a clear 
deep blue, with the sun like a very small white 
steel point in the middle of it, and everything, 
both on land and sea, was green and blue, and 
not a bit of warm colour in the whole landscape. 

We arrived off Georgetown about half-past 
three. The town is built on the side of a hill, 
divided from the little land-locked harbour by a 
cape crowned with a fort, and, seen from the sea, 
it appeared in rather a worse plight than most of 
the towns which we had seen in the West Indies, 
and that is saying a great deal. Numbers of 
ruined houses, some of them large ones like ware- 
houses, with all the windows out, made it look as 
if it had been lately devastated by a fire. The 
streets, which ran straight up the hill from the 
water, appeared almost empty. No shops, no 
one at their doors, and nothing going on. Several 
churches were conspicuous, but were remarkable 
only for their ridiculous architecture. They were 
a sort of imitation of English churches ; one had 
a square tower with pinnacles at the top, but 



COALING A STEAMER. 



93 



each had every fault that a builder could make 
them ugly with. 

We steamed into the bay, a beautiful little 
sheltered harbour, surrounded by steep hills, — 
such a harbour as you sometimes find on the 
coast of Norway, but its likeness was in shape 
only, for though steep it was not so sterile and 
rocky as are the fjords on that coast. We 
went up close to the wharf, for the Wye was to 
stay here seven hours to coal, and numbers of 
black women were waiting at the coal-heaps 
ready to begin, for a great mountain of coal had 
been prepared, and they soon set to work. The 
coaling here, as at Jamaica, is all done by black 
women, each of whom carries a basket of coal 
on her head, walks up the plank, and puts it 
on board. Each basket holds 75 lbs., for five 
of which a woman gets one penny ; and at the 
gangway sit two men, who count them up by 
tens, at each ten call "tally," and chalk down 
the number on a board. 

We got on shore as soon as we could, to get out 
of the way of dust and noise, and called on some 
of the residents, to whom we had letters of intro- 
duction, but we found none of them at home. 
We then walked up the streets, which were so 
steep that no carriage could have ascended, and 
at the top of the hill sat down on a wall by the 
Eoman Catholic church. It was very hot, the 



94 



VISIT TO RESIDENTS. 



thermometer being 88°, and we sat and looked 
about us, wondering at the miserable style of the 
town. All the houses seemed built in imitation 
of English, to stand the blasts of an English 
winter, with square windows, and roofs prepared 
for heavy falls of snow. No balconies or veran- 
dahs, or anything fitted for a tropical climate ; 
they seemed to have been built in recollection of 
houses in country towns at home. As usual, we 
admired the trees, covered with fragrant flowers, 
and the humming-birds fluttering around them ; 
and then we went up to the foot of the fort over- 
looking the harbour, and sat there until it got 
dark. While we were resting there, a gentleman 
introduced himself to us as a friend of Mr. S., to 
whom we had a letter of introduction, and we 
went with him to Mr. S.'s house, and ere long he 
returned and regaled us on some excellent shrub, 
— a liqueur for which Grenada is deservedly 
famous. I believe the last time I tasted this 
liquor was in my youthful clays, at Surley Hall, 
where shrub and lemonade used to be a favourite 
drink, — but this shrub was something superior to 
anything I had ever tasted. 

Mr. S.'s house looked on the wharf, and the 
scene now was a curious one. The coaling was 
going on with vigour, I might almost say with 
fury ; rum had had its effect, and the black women 
were working away, shouting, swearing, singing 



LEAVE GRENADA. 



95 



screaming ; the loaded ones toiled up the plank 
with the coals on their heads, whilst the others 
came down swinging their empty baskets in their 
hands. Coal fires were burning on the wharf 
and on the planks, in iron frames, like great 
cressets, and by the red lurid light the women 
appeared to the eye and ear like so many demons. 
A gang of Seedies coaling at Singapore is bad 
enough ; but they are men and not women ; and 
although they were niggers that makes a great 
deal of difference Two of our friends took Mrs. 
E. between them, and we got on board through 
the crowd easily enough. We went to our cabin 
at once, and before morning we had left the 
beautiful Grenada far behind us. 



9 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Trinidad. — Bocas de Memos. — Port of Spain. — Lodging 

Houses. 

Ninety miles took us to Trinidad, and in the 
morning we were in sight of the island, and 
steering straight for the first of the Bocas or 
mouths which open from the sea into the Gulf of 
Paria. To the north-east the coast consisted of 
high, steep promontories ; and to the south, 
beyond the Bocas, the blue mountains of South 
America rose up in long succession. We entered 
the Boca de Monos, or Monkey's Mouth, a narrow 
but sufficiently safe entrance, though the current 
being strong makes it sometimes dangerous for 
sailing vessels. They generally enter at a wider 
passage, more to the south. There are several 
Bocas, divided from each other by small steep 
islands ; but probably at one time these islands 
were all one, and Trinidad was a part of the 
great American continent. The similarity of the 
natural productions, birds, animals, everything in 
short, tends to this conclusion. The mountains on 
each side of Boca de Monas are very high, and 



BOCA DE MOJSTOS, 



97 



clothed with wood, and many of the trees were 
bright with blossoms. At the foot, for the moun- 
tains ran sheer down to the sea, the waves had 
hollowed out great black caves, and thundered 
into them with a sullen roar. It is a fine scene, 
but is generally overrated in the descriptions that 
I have read of it. Inside, the water was smooth, 
and surrounded by some lower mountains, and it 
looked exactly like a Scotch lake. Inside, too, we 
lost the breeze — the cool northern breeze which 
we had brought down with us all the way from 
St. Thomas's ; the heat was intense, and it did 
not decrease all the way up to the town. From 
the shallowness of the water we anchored nearly 
a mile off Port of Spain (which is the chief town 
of the island), but the captain allowing us to land 
in his boat, we soon got on shore. I put Mrs. E. 
into a hack carriage, and getting our luggage on 
to a cart, I followed on foot to Miss Emma Clarke's 
hotel, which had been recommended to us (indeed, 
I had heard it was the only one) ; so there we 
went, and luckily found rooms. 

The exterior of the house was laughable ; it 
looked like — no, I never saw anything like it in 
England, so must try to describe it. The house 
stands detached from others, on a plot of rubbish- 
ing ground ; it is two stories high, and was once 
plastered or washed yellow, but most of this is 
worn off. There are no chimneys, nor any glass 

H 



98 



MISS EMMA CLARKE. 



visible in the windows, for they were all set open. 
The house was set back about six feet from the 
street, and was divided from it by wooden palings, 
but these were half broken down and gone. Al- 
together there was a disreputable air about it which 
words fail me to depict. However, Miss Emma wel- 
comed us, and we were glad to get anywhere, as the 
sun was now really hot. Miss Emma Clarke is a 
portly Mulatto, ready to do anything or get any- 
thing for us, for we found that, generally speak- 
ing, there was nothing in the house. But nobody 
cared much about this, and if they did get any- 
thing, appeared to think it a piece of good fortune. 
A young black fellow was cook, a boy about four- 
teen, without coat or shoes, waited on us, and one 
or two women thought they acted as housemaids, 
but did nothing. Miss Emma usually sat in the 
back door, for that was the coolest place, and it was 
convenient, for it commanded both the house and 
the kitchen, which was in a separate building, and 
from here she issued her orders. When we wanted 
anything, as of course there were no bells, we called 
to her out of the window. "Miss Emma." "What 
you want T " I want my shoes cleaned." " Pitch 
'em out, then, the boy will clean 'em." "Miss 
Emma, I want some ice and limes." " You must 
wait, then ; boy gone to ice-house this half hour ; 
I expect he stop to play in street ; I cuff him 
when he come back." 



THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE. 99 

Behind the house in the yard was the bath- 
house, and that was the best thing there. The 
bath, built of stone and cement, was about eight 
feet long and three deep, with a continual flow of 
clear cool water into it. It was worth anything, 
and I really do not know what we should have 
done without it. We found out afterwards there 
was a much nicer lodging-house kept by a Miss 
Georgy Shaw ; in fact, throughout the West Indies 
the lodging-houses seemed all to be kept by 
" Misses." We only had two days to stay in Trini- 
dad, then the Wye would come back from Tobago 
and take us away, and in expectation of that we 
left our luggage, arm chair, etc., on board. So I 
ordered a carriage, delivered some letters at the 
Government offices close by, then drove off to " the 
Cottage," to call on the Governor and Mrs. Man- 
ners Sutton. 

The Cottage is about two miles from the town. 
It is a large one- storied bungalow, as it would be 
called in India, with broad verandahs all round 
it, and is situated at one end of the Botanical 
Gardens. The Cottage now acts as the Govern- 
ment house, the old one having been pulled down 
some years ago and never rebuilt. We were 
received with great kindness, and, as we wished 
to see the Botanical Gardens, the custodian was 
sent for, and he shewed us everything. Then 
we drove round the Savannah, as the public 

H 2 



100 



POET OF SPAIN. 



park is called, back to the town ; but, by the 
time our drive was finished, we were so much 
pleased with all we had seen, that we agreed to 
let the rolling Wye go back without us, and stay 
sixteen days in Trinidad. Having decided on 
this, we unpacked our things, made our rooms as 
comfortable as we could, wrote letters to go back 
by the steamer instead of ourselves, and returned 
in the evening to dine at " the Cottage." 

Trinidad is a large island, second only in size 
to Jamaica. It is nearly square and very fertile, 
though the hilly parts are still covered with 
forest. Being only nine degrees from the equator, 
of course it is very hot ; indeed, when we were 
there, being April, the sun was nearly vertical, 
and at noon we had no shadow, at least so little 
that when we stood up it was hardly perceptible 
on one side more than another. There is a great 
deal of rain in the wet season, which begins about 
May, and there are showers at all times, so it has 
a very verdant look compared with Jamaica. 

Port of Spain is well built and clean, with broad, 
well-paved streets and good shops ; the principal 
buildings are the government offices, which are 
well arranged and cool ; a marble statue of 
Lord Harris, a former governor, and a good col- 
lection of stuffed birds, is all there is of interest 
in them. In the court house are some portraits 
worth seeing ; amongst them one of Sir Ralph 



BEVERAGES. 



101 



Abercrombie, who was also governor here. Per- 
haps the building of most consequence in 
Port of Spain is the ice-house ; it is a Yankee 
establishment ; below is a large store — a kind of 
Fortnum and Mason's — where preserved meats 
and everything of that sort may be bought. Be- 
hind is the ice-store, and upstairs are rooms 
where luncheons and dinners may be had — a 
restaurant, in fact — and in it a large bar, which 
has a great deal of custom, though they do not 
drink as many strong drinks here as in the 
United States. 1 saw a black cab-driver come in 
one day, and asked him what he was drinking. 
" Soda and syrup, sare," he said with a grin. 
They draw a distinction in the West Indies in 
the size of drinks, and ask if you will have a long 
drink or a short one : a glass of beer, soda-water, 
and those sort of things coming under the first head, 
cock-tails, and that class, under the second. The 
Yankees in these countries (and other residents 
very much follow their example) generally drink 
cock-tails, and they are not bad, and I do not 
think them unwholesome in a hot climate. A 
cock-tail is, as I suppose every one knows, 
composed of brandy, gin, or whiskey, a very 
small quantity of bitters, some pounded ice and 
sugar, and a very little lime juice ; this, when 
stirred up with a swizzle stick, which is made 
from the shoot of an orange tree, is a most en- 



102 VILLAS OF THE RESIDENTS. 

ticing drink. Bitters are excellent here, and the 
best are made at Angostura, a town on the 
Orinoco. 

The ice-house is a monopoly, and is under a 
contract with Government always to have a sup- 
ply ready, and they are fined £5 a day if they 
allow the stock to run out. Of course it comes 
from Wenham Lake, or Fresh Pond, as the Yan- 
kees call it. The ice-ship is looked for with great 
interest, as it briogs other luxuries as well as ice : 
fresh codfish, veal, and all sorts of fresh provisions, 
which the West Indians think far superior to 
anything they can get in the island ; but I think 
novelty and scarcity give them the chief charm. 

Behind the town, in the outskirts, are the de- 
tached villas of the principal residents, and they 
generally stand in gardens of an acre or more. 
These are really nice houses, and the grounds are 
well laid out, and planted with all the beautiful 
trees belonging to the island, and with specimens 
from other tropical countries. Greenhouse plants 
that are small in England here form trees ; Ste- 
phanotus ten feet high, Gardinias thirty feet high, 
and covered with blossoms. Some people have a 
fine collection of orchids, others of ferns ; and 
each garden had something new to attract our 
attention. 

Beyond these villas was the savannah, — a flat, 
open, grass park, — round the outside of which 



THE BOTANIC GARDENS. 



103 



was a drive. Inside was the racecourse, and in 
it was an immense edifice called "The Prince's 
Building for when Prince Alfred signified his 
intention of visiting Trinidad, there was no house 
in which to give any public entertainment, so the 
loyal inhabitants voted a large sum of money, 
and erected this great building to provide ball- 
rooms, banquetting-rooms, and everything that 
could be desired. It was a grea£ pity, I thought, 
that they had not built it in such a way and in 
such a situation, that it would afterwards have 
answered the purpose for a Government-house, of 
which Trinidad is sadly in want. But it seems 
to have been done in a hurry, and unfortunately 
now it is of no great use ; however, the people 
of Trinidad are very loyal, and will produce the 
money to build a Government House when it is 
wanted. 

The Botanic Garden beyond this, just at the 
foot of the mountains, is very beautiful ; indeed 
I have never seen its equal anywhere. It has 
so many advantages, — a hot climate, plenty of 
rain, a good supply of water from the mountains, 
an excellent gardener in charge of it, and a people 
who are proud of it and appreciate it, and it has 
had the additional advantage of having been well 
looked after and stocked for years. I cannot 
enumerate all the remarkable trees and plants, but 
you may say that here every tropical tree may be 



104 



TRINIDAD. 



seen flourishing. A great many different sorts of 
palms, cabbage, fan, date, royal, and numbers of 
others. An avenue of the barren and Indian fig, 
Ficus redula, and intertwined with them an 
enormous creeper, Siccaradacca volubile, forms 
a most striking combination ; then Australian 
trees lift their white shining branches in the air. 
In other parts are groves of nutmegs, — trees of 
forty feet high, covered with their shining fruit. 
Coffee, tea, cloves, and other spices, in profusion, 
and dracsenas and bananas waved their beautiful 
leaves in the breeze. Another part was laid out 
as a flower garden, with beds, and a splashing 
fountain in the midst ; but the flowers grew 
rather too rank for a geometrical arrangement. 
In one corner I noticed that curious Musa, the tra- 
veller's tree, which I had seen in India, and which 
carries a supply of clear water at the foot of every 
stalk. In another, a bush was covered with that 
remarkable creeper, the Aristolochia gigas, a Bra- 
zilian plant. The pine family alone seemed to 
be unrepresented ; but a few from the warmer 
parts of Mexico might be introduced. I think, too, 
that the Norfolk Island pine, Araucaria excelsa, 
might not find it too hot, for there is a fine spe- 
cimen in the Botanic Gardens at Sydney, and that 
is a hot place. 

Trinidad has one peculiarity, — it is never 
visited by hurricanes, and altogether it is very 



PORT OF SPAIN CHURCHES. 105 

healthy. The town stands low, nearly on a flat, 
and it is surrounded with moderately-sized hills, 
but, unlike every other place, they say that on 
the hills it is very unhealthy, and if you were 
to sleep one night on the hill above the town, 
you would probably have a fever ■ the cause is 
supposed to be from the malaria rising from the 
marshy ground beyond. 

There are two chief churches in Port of Spain, 
— the Cathedral, which is Eoman Catholic, and to 
which most of the old French residents go ; and 
the other, the English Protestant Church. The 
latter, to which we went, is large, airy, and cool, 
and was well filled with the white population ; 
but it struck me as being rather singular that no 
one joined either in the hymns or in the re- 
sponses ; everyone seemed shy and ill at ease. 
There were a few blacks present ; the women 
dressed in their best, with gaudy handkerchiefs 
tied round their heads, something in the shape of 
a turban. The fashionable colour of these hand- 
kerchiefs is yellow, or rather orange, striped with 
red. They take the greatest pains to put it on in 
proper style, and that the colours should be of the 
brightest they have the handkerchief painted. 
The residents all dress in the same costume that 
they would in England, — cloth coats and waist- 
coats, with high black hats, and I believe I was 
the only person in the church in a white silk coat. 



106 



A NEW EXPEDITION. 



The next day, as the Wye returned from To- 
bago, I went on board before breakfast to get my 
luggage on shore, — which I easily did ; but we had 
left all our warm clothing packed up at St. Tho- 
mas's, and had ordered it to be put on board the 
La Plata, as we had intended to go home in that 
ship. Now, as our tour was prolonged, we should 
go home in the next transatlantic steamer, so it 
was necessary to stop our things from being put 
on board, or if already shipped, to get them back 
again. All these directions I had to entrust to 
the steward, who was ill in his cabin with fever, 
so I had some doubt whether we should find our 
things after all, but I promised some dollars if the 
things went right, — and they luckily did so. Mrs. 
E. had gone out riding to St. George's post, and 
described the view from there as being very 
beautiful ; she was particularly struck with one 
tree, called the Bois Immortelle ; the leaves of it 
were not out, but the tree was one mass of scarlet 
flowers, as bright and showy as our scarlet gera- 
nium. In the afternoon, I went to the Botanical 
Gardens, and finding a place shaded from the sun, 
which was at least cool-looking, made a drawing 
of some of the trees ; but I was surprised to find 
from the curator that one of the largest of them, 
and like a great spreading oak, was only forty years 
old, the seed having been brought there in the 
pocket of one of the former Governors. 



107 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Expedition to some Islands near the Bocas. — Chaguaramos 
Bay. — Favourite Nigger Song. — Caves containing Sta- 
lactites. — Maraccas Bay. — The Cocoa, or Cacao. — A 
rocky stream frequented by Crabs. — Blue Basin. — Miss 
Emma Clarke's Hotel. — Luxuries of Port of Spain. 

March 20th. — This day we had arranged with 
Mr. Devenish and his son to make an expedition 
to some islands near the Bocas, to dine, fish, bathe, 
and otherwise enjoy ourselves ; so they having 
provided a basket of provisions at the ice-house, 
we went down to the pier, where the boat was 
waiting for us. Four blacks rowed us down 
to the end of Chaguaramos Bay, where Mr. D. was 
superintendent of works. 

The bay is divided from another by a narrow 
flat isthmus, and a small canal, called Hart's Cut, 
had been dug through this neck of land, so that 
the fishing boats could pass through it at high 
water, and thus save a long and sometimes dan- 
gerous detour round the peninsula. There is a 
superintendent there now, with a gang of nigger 
convicts, digging stone to finish the mouth of the 
canal. We landed at his house, and arranged 
everything for breakfast, and then went and 



108 



NIGGER SONG. 



bathed in a little retired bay, where the forest 
came down to the water's edge. After breakfast, 
we went to where the convicts were digging 
stone ; they were pulling the blocks out of the 
hillside with a rope, one man extemporising a 
song, and all joining in chorus. This style of 
work seemed to suit them well, particularly as 
they only gave one pull at the rope to each verse. 
They gave us all the noise, but not much of the 
poetry of the nigger melodies, indeed, but few of 
these songs have ever been known amongst these 
blacks. The favourite song here was, — 

" John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave ;" 

but though I myself knew, I never found a black 
who could tell me exactly who John Brown was, 
or what he did. The style of these fellows' songs 
was about this :- — 

" William Riley was a bad man; 

(Chorus) Oh, William Riley ! 
William Riley came to me ; 

Oh, William Riley ! 
William Riley stole my daughter; 

Oh, William Riley ! 
He killed his brother James ; 

Hurrah, for James Riley ! 

and so on. The work on which they were em- 
ployed seemed hard enough, but they do not 
mind the heat ; and although they had " Felon" 
stamped on their clothes in large letters, they 



CHAGUAKAMOS. 



109 



appeared very cheerful, and delighted to see us. 
One grinning fellow installed himself as head 
waiter, unpacked everything, and waited on us 
capitally ; but afterwards, whilst I was engaged 
drawing, and the rest had gone to see some caves 
near, they fraternised with our boatmen, finished 
our brandy and sherry, and we were only just 
in time to save the last bottle of claret we 
had. 

The caves were situated on a small island, and 
when it is low tide (which it was when our party 
were there) you can walk for several yards inside 
them. The ground is very uneven, and you look 
down a kind of abyss, which was always full of 
water. Mr. Devenish burnt some blue lights, and 
the effect was beautiful in the extreme, lighting 
up the whole caves, and showing off to perfection 
its numerous stalactites which hung from the 
roof. 

Chaguaramos was a very pretty place, with fish- 
ermen^ huts, and tall cocoa-nut trees, on the water's 
edge ; and we stayed here till the sea breeze was 
over, and started on our homeward voyage soon 
after dark, cocoa-nut trees, huts, and stars being 
reflected in the sea as in a mirror. It was a long, 
slow row home, for there was no wind to help us, 
and we did not arrive at the pier till ten p.m. 

Our kind friends, Mr. Warner and Mr. Devenish, 
had organised another expedition for us to a place 



110 



THE COCOA TREE. 



called Maraccas Bay, on the other side of the 
island. Mr. W., the Attorney-General, undertook 
the commissariat department, and well did he 
carry it out. We first drove out a short distance 
along the road to Arima, and then turning up a 
a pretty valley, through which runs a clear stream, 
we went to the police-station, to which place all 
our eatables had been already sent ; we had had 
chocolate at daybreak, and now our table was 
placed under the trees, and we had an excellent 
breakfast. Then we all mounted our horses, and 
rode for some distance through thick plantations 
of cocoa. The whole valley was full of cocoa- 
groves, and as the trees do better when partly 
shaded by others, it had the appearance of a con- 
tinual wood. This tree, Theobroma cacao, of 
course has nothing to do with the cocoa-nut palm 
on which the well-known nuts grow, but being 
called Cacao in Spanish, it has made rather a 
confusion of names. " Chocolate" is a Mexican 
word. The Bois Immortelle — which, as I have 
before mentioned, has a beautiful red flower — is 
the tree generally planted to shade the cocoa 
groves, and is therefore called La Madre del 
cacao in Spanish. It is supposed to collect the 
dews and moisture in the driest weather, and 
protects the cocoa-tree from the too great heat of 
the sun. 

The cocoa, or cacao, is like a large hazelbush, but 



COCOA . 



Ill 



rather thicker in the trunk, of which there are 
generally several. The leaf is something like 
that of a sweet chestnut, only larger. The fruit 
is a great thick pod eight or nine inches long, and 
it grows not on the sprays, like other fruit, but 
hangs from a little stem, perhaps an inch long, 
which springs from the side of the trunk or one 
of the larger branches. The flower is excessively 
small, something like a little thin daisy, so is 
almost invisible on the side of the trunk. The 
pods vary in colour from a deep crimson to scarlet 
and orange, so a heap, when gathered, has a very 
pretty appearance. Each pod contains twenty or 
thirty nuts, like almonds. The nuts, after being 
taken from the pods, are crushed, then made into 
a paste, and finally formed into sticks by the 
negro women. This then is cocoa, and when 
ground makes a very good drink. 

Chocolate, however, is better, though it is 
actually the same material ; but it is sent to 
France, where it is mixed with sugar and vanilla 
and sent back to Trinidad ; and it will hardly be 
believed that cocoa, costing from Is. to Is. 6d. 
per pound, is sent back as chocolate, and sold in 
the shops here at 5s. per pound, though the sugar 
and vanilla with which it is mixed are both sent 
from Trinidad. All the white sugar is made in 
England, and pays a high duty to come back to its 
original country. Cocoa-nibs are the entire kernels 



112 



MOUNTAIN SCENEKY. 



broken up together, and they really are quite as 
good as any other part ; they are also the most 
pure, as they cannot be adulterated. 

Having passed through these cocoa-groves, we 
ascended the side of the mountain, our road lead- 
ing through the primseval forest. This was very 
beautiful ; great-leaved plants and ferns crowding 
up the side of the path, and all round being a thick 
mass of vegetation. From near the summit of the 
hill was a beautiful view of the coast and bay to 
which we were bound, and the descent through 
the forest was yet more beautiful. The trees 
were not very large, but were tall, with straight 
clean stems ; and though creepers and orchids 
hung around, it was not the same impenetrable 
bush as that on the Panama railway. At the 
foot of the hill was a small deep stream, which 
gave us some trouble to cross, but a Spanish 
settler came from his house close by and helped 
us, and showed us a fallen tree we could walk 
over, and drove our horses through a little way 
below. 

Near here was a tree covered with ripe guavas, 
they smelt good, and had rather a nice taste ; but 
most of the fruit was full of maggots, which is 
said to be always the case when they are ripe. 
At last we all got down to the seashore, and Mr. 
D. producing some sandwiches and a bottle of 
champagne from his saddlebags, we had a slight 



MARACCAS BAY. 



113 



luncheon, and found the champagne most refresh- 
ing. Then making the Spaniard take care of all 
the horses, we divided into parties, and went to 
bathe in the sea. The surf rolled in quietly but 
strongly ; and although we were not quite free 
from fear of sharks, we enjoyed a delicious 
bath. 

Maraccas Bay is a small deep bay, running in 
among high wooded hills, excessively pretty, and 
as the shore is fine sand, it is well adapted for 
bathing. The famous Maraccas waterfall is pre- 
cipitated from a great height the other side of the 
range of hills that we crossed. It is but a small 
stream in general, but in the rainy season, I dare 
say, it is a fine sight. 

We mounted our horses, and returned by the 
Spanish settler's house, in front of which we 
gathered some small bottle-gourds from a tree. 
They were about six inches long, and, with a cork 
at the end, make excellent shot-pouches. These 
gourds, or calabashes, grow on a large tree, and 
are of many different sizes. The inside, which is 
soft, is scooped out ; the large ones are used as 
basons, tubs, and cooking utensils, and the smaller 
ones are cut and stained, and made into very 
pretty baskets of different shapes by the natives ; 
others have necks, and are formed into bottles, 
and in fact, nearly every utensil that the natives 
require is made from a gourd. 

i 



114 



SOMETHING ABOUT CRABS. 



We then began our ascent of the hills, and the 
path through the wood was so beautiful that I 
could not resist making a sketch ; but I had hardly 
done a pencil outline, when some big drops of 
rain began to fall. It increased, and soon poured 
in torrents. We went on, under the dripping 
trees, at a foot's pace, and though we had um- 
brellas, we were wet through before we reached 
the summit, and then the descent was worse ; for 
the path, being clay, became so slippery that the 
horses could hardly stand, and we expected every 
instant to tumble headlong among the bushes. 
However, we plodded on, and as we got lower 
down the rain began to decrease, and soon ceased 
altogether. As we crossed a little rocky stream, 
Mr. D. amused us much by jumping off his horse 
and running after some crabs, which were trying 
to hide themselves under the stones. After a chase, 
he caught several, and we had them cooked for 
dinner, but they had little or no meat upon them ; 
but inside they were full of fully-formed young ones. 
Do these crabs, then, bring forth their young alive or 
spawn \ I forgot to ask ; but they evidently came 
up the rocky stream to breed. Arrived at the police- 
station, we took off our wet clothes, dressed as well 
as we could in the cloaks and coats we had left 
there, and then had an excellent dinner. We 
drove home to Port of Spain in the evening, and 
luckily took no harm from our wetting. 



MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 115 

Trinidad, like Jamaica, might be called "the 
island of beautiful streams," and one of the most 
beautiful of them runs down a valley not far 
from Port of Spain, and the most striking part 
of it is, where it falls into a deep pool called 
the " Blue Basin." It is a spot that everyone 
ought to visit, and it is a favourite place for picnics. 
The Governor and his family were kind enough 
to make a party for us, and having breakfasted at 
" The Cottage," we drove off in two carriages to the 
valley, — luncheon, ice, and everything having been 
prepared ; horses, also, were sent on, as we could not 
drive within a mile of the basin, and the hill was 
rather steep. We drove as far as we could in the 
carriages, and then most of the party mounted 
their horses, and rode till the path became too steep 
and rough ; we then dismounted, leaving the 
horses with the grooms, and proceeded on foot 
through the shady cocoa-groves. The valley be- 
came narrower and the sides steeper as we fol- 
lowed the course of the clear brook. Then turning 
a corner in the wood, we suddenly came upon the 
most lovely amphitheatre in the world. A small 
stream, rushing from the woods, fell about fifty 
feet into a large deep basin of blue water, throw- 
ing its spray into the air ; all around were great 
leaved tropical plants, wild bananas, and ferns, in 
the thickest masses. Above towered lofty trees, 
nearly closing over head, and only allowing a few 

i 2 



116 THE GOVERNOR'S EXCURSION. 

spokes of bright light to enter, and to touch the 
green leaves with still brighter green. Although 
green, everything had a blue tinge over it, and it 
all looked like some gorgeous scene in a ballet, 
the illusion being heightened by the ladies of the 
party, who wore white muslin dresses and broad 
hats. We sketched, gathered ferns, and amused 
ourselves in different ways, and then returned to 
where the carriages were left, where the servants 
had prepared an excellent luncheon, with ice, 
beer, and every sort of luxury, and spread it 
under the shade of some tall feathery bamboos. 
Here we gathered oranges from the trees close by, 
and gave the owners 6d. for about fifty, with 
which they seemed quite satisfied. Then the Go- 
vernor, Mrs. E., and the ladies who had riding- 
horses, rode up to the north post, from which was 
a fine view of the seacoast, outside the Bocas. 
I and the rest went to a sugar-mill, and stayed 
there till the party returned, when we went 
home thoroughly delighted with our day's excur- 
sion. We dined at " The Cottage," and having 
before ordered a hack carriage to come for us to 
take us home, we started for the town soon after 
ten o'clock. The black driver, who had a friend 
on the box, went through the garden, and passed 
the sentry at a foot's pace, but when he got into 
the road, he still went on at the same slow rate. 
I called to him, and asked why he went so slow, 



COMING HOME FROM DINNER. 117 

and asked if there was anything the matter with 
the horse, " No, sare ; horse all right." " Then 
why don't you go faster V " Horse all right, sare, 
but wheel bad." I kept urging that he must go 
a little faster ; but, " No," he said ; " you make 
yourself comfortable, and I'll get you home." " Of 
course you will," I said ; " but why did you bring 
such a carriage V He answered, " I would not 
have come at all, but I promised you, and so I 
would not leave you there all night." And so we 
went on at a very slow walk, the wheel every 
time it turned, giving a series of uncomfortable 
jerks. But in time, as he promised, he brought 
us to the town ; he went through the streets even 
more carefully, but as we passed the street run- 
ning down to the harbour, I saw that the Southern 
Cross had got already a little beyond its perpen- 
dicular position, showing that it was past mid- 
night. Miss Emma was waiting for us at the 
door, so I took the candle to look at the ailing 
wheel. The tire and felloe were gone from one 
side, and we had come home on half a wheel, 
and on the points of the rest of the spokes. 
This accounted for the odd jerking we had ex- 
perienced. I paid him his fare, for I was only 
thankful we got home at all, and we could not 
have got another carriage ; indeed, there is often 
the greatest difficulty in getting hack carriages. 
A dollar, and a dollar and a half, is often asked 



118 



WEST INDIAN COOKERY. 



for bringing you home from dinner, from houses 
in the town. 

All this time we stayed at Miss Emma Clarke's ; 
but our friends were so kind to us and so hospit- 
able, that we did not often dine there, and the 
dinners of the residents were replete with every 
luxury, — good cooking, good wines well iced, and 
everything done in the best style ; not so were 
those, when we dined at home ; though Miss 
Emma tried her best to make us comfortable, and 
get us everything she thought we should like. 

People in England, who get an eatable dinner 
every day without aspiring to a good one, do not 
generally trouble much about cooking ; but those 
who travel in foreign parts, and change often from 
one country and one climate to another, must and 
do think about it ; and whether they get a dinner 
at all, and what sort of one it is or is likely to be, 
becomes an important item in the day's work. 
Now, as far as my experience goes, the West 
Indies, for its pretensions, is about the worst 
country in the world for good living ; and although 
many West Indian dishes and West Indian cooks 
have some reputation, it is only amongst those 
who are perfectly ignorant of what a good dinner 
is. In the first place, the system, and what they 
try for, leads them into the grossest errors, — for 
West Indian cooking, like that of Van Diemen's 
Land and Australia, usually consists of a bad imi- 



PKOVISIONS OF THE WEST INDIES. 



119 



tation of the worst style of an English cuisine ; 
and as the people, in addition to their ignorance, 
are most prejudiced, and their prejudice runs in 
favour of the country from which they came, they 
consider the best things are all those that come 
from England ; and so if they wish to send up a 
good dinner, they give one tasteless salmon, pre- 
served in tins, codfish sent out in ice, preserved 
oysters, veal from America (if an ice-ship has 
lately come in), and the only West Indian dish, 
which is really to be eulogised, is the inevitable 
turtle soup. Now, as we have the best of all sorts 
of meat in England, a plain dinner, done by a 
plain cook, is not a bad thing ; but here, where 
the meats are of the worst quality, and they are 
unable to roast for want of a fire, and therefore 
bake everything, and generally bake it to rags, — 
the result may easily be imagined. 

Some native animals are very good ; but wild 
pigeons and wild ducks, baked twice as long as 
they ought to be, are but a woful parody of what 
we get in England. There are some very good 
fish, too, — the bagh of Trinidad, and the snapper 
and grouper, are excellent fish ; but if they are 
fried, they are fried in infamous butter, or if 
boiled, they are smothered with the same, or 
covered with a tremendously hot-peppered sauce. 
Another, called the cascaduro, — a brown-looking 
fish, something like a small burbot, — is said to be 



120 LUXURIES OF POET OF SPAIN. 

so good that if you eat it once, you will be certain 
to return to Trinidad to eat it again. The poultry 
is woful, — something like German chickens, but 
much more stringy ; and the beef is tougher than 
anyone can imagine. The fowls can be imitated 
by making a fricassee of knotted skeins of wor- 
sted ; the beef, by taking the coarse part of an 
old cow and larding it with fiddle-strings. Turtle 
is plentiful, and, at Port of Spain, is eaten twice 
a week, Wednesday and Friday, on account of 
the number of Eoman Catholics in the island. It 
was sold at about threepence the pound. Land- 
crabs are considered great luxuries, but we did 
not appreciate them ; the curried prawns were 
excellent. Another dish was peculiar to Trinidad, 
— grubs from the grugru-palm ; they were stuck 
on a stick and fried, and eaten off the stick, and 
were said to be excellent. I ordered them, but 
never got any, Miss Emma saying she would 
rather starve than eat such nasty stuff ; but, how- 
ever, we got good bread and delicious chocolate, 
which made up for many other deficiencies. 



121 



CHAPTEE XV. 

Visit to the Pitch Lake.— The Lapp of Trinidad.— The 
Vanilla Plant. — Steamboat Excursion. 

On Friday, April 1, we agreed to go and see 
another great lion of Trinidad ; viz., the Pitch 
Lake, and, as several other gentlemen were going 
too, we made a large party. The steamer which 
trades along the coast, sailed at seven a.m., and 
stopped at a place called La Brea, five or six hours 
from Port of Spain, and there we were to land, as 
the Pitch Lake was only a mile distant from it. 
We touched at several places on the coast, and 
landed and took in passengers ; but the country 
looked flat and uninteresting. At last we arrived 
at La Brea, and landed. We had heard that horses 
had been ordered for us, but there had been some 
mistake, and there were only horses for some 
gentlemen, who were going to see, and buy, I be- 
lieve, a neighbouring estate. However, some one 
lent a horse to Mrs. E., and we all started off to- 
gether, some riding and others walking, and we 
soon had enough of pitch. We landed at La Brea 
on pitch, the road was pitch, and everything was 
pitch. An asphalt petroleum sort of atmosphere 



122 



THE PITCH LAKE. 



pervaded everything, and the dust smelt and tasted 
of pitch. We soon came to the lake and walked on 
it. It is a most curious place, — a slight depression 
in a flattish country, is filled with the blackest 
pitch. It is level, but has numerous cracks all about 
it, two or three feet wide ; they were all filled 
with clear water, and appeared three or four feet 
deep ; but I hardly know what caused them, nor. 
why they did not fill up. The surface was soft 
from the heat of the sun, and the pitch felt so hot we 
could hardly bear our hands upon it ; and the nig- 
gers who carried my sketch book and the luncheon 
basket, said that the water in the crevasses was 
too hot for their bare feet. It was perfectly safe 
to ride about the lake (though I heard that ani- 
mals had been engulfed in it), but immediately the 
horse stood still his hoofs began to sink, and indeed 
our heels began to sink unless we kept moving. 
The depth of the pitch is not known ; they said 
it was estimated to be about thirty feet, but it is 
not possible to fathom it, and if a hole is dug it 
soon fills up again. One of the gentlemen who 
had met us at La Brea, was engaged there as an 
agent for shipping pitch to England. His name 
was Perkins, and he showed and explained to us 
everything, and he and Mr. Devenish and some 
others who had not gone to the estate walked 
about the lake with us. It is surrounded with 
trees, so we sat under the shade of one and 



THE LAPP OF TRINIDAD. 123 

had some wine and water, while I made a sketch. 
After that we crossed to the other side, the 
gentlemen helping Mrs. E. over the crevasses. 
And then we cut numerous specimens of the pitch 
from the surface of the lake with our knives, to 
take home with us. 

Leaving the lake, we entered a forest full of 
palm-trees, where, amongst other curiosities, Mrs. 
E. saw a great blue and yellow macaw, and here 
the ground in the open glades was full of sensitive 
plant. The path led us down to the sea-shore, on 
which had been built a retort for distilling pitch 
into oil ; but we had seen enough of pitch, so re- 
turned homeward. The tide was in, and we had 
a most troublesome walk along rocks, the horse 
going easier on the sand, a little way into the sea, 
and at last we arrived safely at La Brea, very 
hot, thirsty, and tired. We went to Mr. Perkins's 
house, and nothing could exceed his kindness and 
hospitality. Like the rest of La Brea, his house was 
nothing more than a native cottage, but was fitted 
up comfortably, and he had prepared an excel- 
lent dinner for us — fish, wild pigeons, and a large 
part of a lapp, a wild animal found in the woods 
here. It is, I think, the same animal that is called 
"paca" in Brazil, and is about the size of a young 
fawn, which it also somewhat resembles in colour, 
but has shorter legs. The head is more like that 
of a guinea pig. It is excellent eating, and we all 



124 



A WORDY WAR. 



did justice to it. Oranges and pine-apples formed 
our dessert, and for the latter La Brea is famous. 
They are said to be the best known, though I do 
not think they are superior, if equal, to the pines 
of Guayaquil. Mr. Perkins gave us a very large 
one to take home with us. 

There was a grand dispute waging here, be- 
tween the agents of the company, of which Mr. 
Perkins was manager, and a German, who was 
agent to Lord Dundonald. The latter had formerly 
bought a good deal of the land about here, and 
owned some of the Pitch Lake ; but he claimed 
the monopoly of shipping pitch at La Brea, which 
the others disputed, and a wordy war rose high ; 
but Mr. P. had a boat brought up, and he and 
several of his men loaded it, defying the others 
to stop them by legal measures. After numerous 
threats of law on both sides, they calmed down 
without fighting, and La Brea soon resumed its 
wonted quiet. 

Mrs. E., walking round the village, bought a lot 
of pods of the vanilla, which grows on a creeping 
plant in the interior of the forest, and is difficult 
to get even here. They cost about one dollar a 
pound, but a pound goes a long way in cooking. 
It would answer well, I think, to grow this bean 
for profit ; but so many animals and birds are 
fond of it, that it is very difficult to preserve it 
when ripe. I too bought some wild pigeons that 



DANGEROUS EXCURSION. 



125 



some shooters had brought in, and several others 
did the same ; but when we arrived at Port of 
Spain, I do not think half of them were forth- 
coming, they were lost, stolen, or strayed. 

The steamer that was to take us back, at last 
hove in sight, and we prepared to go on board. 
There were two boats, but the passengers were so 
numerous that we weighed them down to the 
water's edge. No one seemed to care, though I 
saw how dangerous it was when we pushed off ; 
but when we met the swell, wave after wave 
washed us, half filling the boats, and wetting our 
legs thoroughly. Luckily, this lasted but a few 
minutes, for we presently scrambled up the side 
of the steamer ; but it was a great nuisance 
having to go back to Port of Spain in wet clothes. 
The steamer was very slow, and most people 
thought it a lucky accident that the machinery 
did not break down, as that was often the case ; 
but we plodded on, and arrived at the quay in 
safety, and got to our hotel at midnight, having 
left it in the morning at about half-past six. It 
was a good long day's work ; but, luckily, we 
were none the worse for it afterwards, though I 
do not advise anyone to play these tricks with 
their health in tropical climates. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 



The Maraval Valley. — The Bombax, or Silk-Cotton-tree. — 
Visit to St. Joseph. — Sugar Crops. — Start for the 
Homeward Voyage. 

April 3. — We started early this morning with 
Mr. Warner, and rode up the Maraval Valley 
to " The Saddle", a notch in the mountains, 
through which a horse-path leads down to the 
coast. The valley had a beautiful clear brook 
running down it, and above, it is dammed up in 
large square tanks, from which tanks is derived 
one of the principal supplies for Port of Spain. 
It appeared beautifully clear water, and, sur- 
rounded by tall trees and feathery bamboos, 
looked cool and inviting for a bathe. We were 
to meet a gentleman near the Saddle, who was to 
take us on to show us his cocoa estate, but we 
had come slowly ; and, as Mr. W. had an appoint- 
ment in town at eleven, we were obliged to turn 
back without visiting it. Our friend, however, 
was at the rendezvous, and rode with us to the 
Saddle, which is a cutting in the rocks, by which 
a long ascent of the hill is saved. We then re- 
turned, the valley, though very pretty, having no- 
thing of particular interest in it, except a very large 



ST. JOSEPH. 



127 



tree by the road side, one of the largest we had 
seen. It was, I think, a bombax or silk-cotton 
tree, with a tall straight trunk, all festooned and 
hung about with creepers, and at the top the large 
branches were covered with orchids and parasiti- 
cal plants, growing as thickly as they could stand. 
Several long creepers, called here monkey ropes, 
hung from the highest boughs half-way to the 
ground. I returned to the place the next day and 
made a sketch of it. 

Another day, having nothing to do, we hired a 
carriage and drove out with Mr. D. to St. Joseph, 
on the road to Arima. It was tremendously hot, 
but we had a good carriage with a cover to it. We 
stopped at St. Joseph, and went up a hill to a 
small chapel and Calvary, from which was a very 
extensive view over the surrounding country. 
Behind were the Maracas Mountains, but in front 
was a flattish plain, fertile in sugar, and the tall 
chimneys of the steam-engines on the sugar es- 
tates were dotted about pretty thickly. From 
here we drove on to another village, where we 
bought some large grass baskets, which the natives 
use for carrying their clothes in. They were very 
nicely woven with a double case of grass, with 
leaves between, which makes them nearly imper- 
vious to water. At the back of the house was a 
tame lapp in a cage, the only one we had seen. 

Then we drove to one of the large sugar-estates, 
with the owner of which Mr. D. was acquainted. 



128 



SUGAR CROPS. 



It was in full work ; the crushing-mill turned by 
steam-power. There were several Lascars em- 
ployed here, and one that was feeding the mill 
quarrelled with another most desperately, and at 
last flew at him and seized him ; but a big negro 
pushed in between them and walked them apart 
with the greatest air of superiority, hardly deign- 
ing to speak to them as he sent them back to 
their work. There are many Lascar settlers here, 
and they seem to do pretty well ; there are also 
some Chinese, but they soon get gardens, and 
grow vegetables for the market, or keep grog- 
shops, which suits them better, and they make 
money at whatever occupation they turn their 
hands to. Having rested some time in the mana- 
ger's house, and picked a quantity of ripe oranges 
off the trees, we returned to our carriage and 
drove home. 

It was, I believe, a pretty good sugar year ; the 
crops seem entirely to depend upon the rain, but 
during the harvest of it, — or crop-time as it is 
called, rain is very troublesome, as it makes the 
soft ground heavy when they want to cart the 
the canes home, and it prevents them drying the 
trash, or squeezed-out cane, with which they feed 
the fires. Whether a good system of agriculture 
is carried on, I know not ; but I cannot help 
thinking it would be better if they were sometimes 
to change the crops. These estates have grown 
sugar on the same ground for twenty or thirty 



START FOR ENGLAND, 



129 



years, or more, without any change ; and cutting 
such a large succulent mass as a sugar-crop, and 
burning the stalks and refuse, must, no doubt, 
be very exhausting for the land. 

At last we had stayed our time at Trinidad, and 
I think I never spent a pleasanter sixteen days ; 
but still we could not prolong our visit, so on 
Saturday, the 8th of April, we sailed in the Der- 
ivent on our homeward voyage. It was a pouring 
wet morning ; but several of our friends came to 
see us off, and everything being gloomy (so dif- 
ferent to the weather when we arrived), we felt 
that it was time to be gone, for we feared it was 
the beginning of the rainy season. Getting away 
from the South American coast, the sky soon 
brightened, though we had frequent showers, but 
the sun being nearly over head, it was very hot. 
We touched at all the islands again, and at Bar- 
badoes changed from the Derwent to the Con- 
way; but taking in passengers from each port, 
all going home, we soon became inconveniently 
crowded. At Barbadoes Mrs. E. bought a large 
stock of arrow-root, bird-peppers, cayenne, and 
guavas, etc., the best arrow-root being four pence 
the pound. 

Then we steamed on to St. Thomas's, and were 
transferred at once to the huge Transatlantic ship, 
the Seine, 3400 tons burden, sister ship to the 
Shannon, in which ship we had come out. 

K 



130 DIFFICULTIES OF THE ROUTE. 

We had now visited all the West Indian Islands 
(rather superficially, perhaps), excepting Cuba and 
Porto Eico. Cuba we had much wished to see ; 
and had intended to go to Havana by an Ameri- 
can steamer from Panama, but they do not now 
touch there. The only other way was to return 
to St. Thomas's, and start afresh for Havana by 
the regular mail line ; but this would have been 
a long voyage, and would have made us so late 
home, that we would not attempt it. At Panama, 
we met Mr. and Mrs. C. Kean, who were also 
anxious to go to Havana, en route for New York ; 
and when we were at Kingston, we tried to 
charter a steamer with them, but there were many 
difficulties in the way. We should then have 
been landed at Santiago de Cuba, on the south 
coast, and have a long, hot journey to the capital. 
There was a railway, we knew, part of the way, 
but it was very difficult to get any certain in- 
formation on the subject ; for although Cuba 
is almost in sight from Jamaica, there is but 
very little intercourse between the two islands. 
Schooners run occasionally, and they may be 
hired ; but in these seas, if once out of the influ- 
ence of the trade-winds, calms are so common 
that it might have been a very long and tedious 
voyage. So we reluctantly gave up Cuba, and 
made the voyage to Trinidad instead. 



131 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Return to England. — The Seine. — Dietary Arrangements. 
— Return Tickets. — Provender of Sea-going Ships. 
— Result of the trip. — Log of the Seine. 

The Seine was excessively crowded ; there were 
about four hundred passengers, and the ship's 
company made up about another hundred. Of 
the passengers, fifty at least were ladies, and fifty 
children, with one stewardess to wait upon them, 
and there was no slight noise. One death hap- 
pened on board. A foreigner, from Hayti, came 
on board ill, at St. Thomas's, and died in his cabin. 
He was buried at night quietly, and but few of 
the passengers knew anything about it, but we 
had some idea that he died of yellow fever. Capt. 
Eivett, the Commander, was Commodore of the 
Eoyal Mail Steamship Company's fleet, a most 
excellent and careful man. He was particularly 
anxious about fire, and took every precaution in his 
power against it ; yet two or three voyages later, 
having left St. Thomas's about twelve hours, he 
discovered that the Seine was on fire in the for- 
ward hold. The cargo then consisted of cigars and 



132 



DIETARY ARRANGEMENTS. 



mackintosh goods, and it is supposed that these 
latter had taken fire spontaneously. The smoke 
and fumes from the burning cargo were dreadful, 
so that the men could not get down to the seat 
of the fire, and several who attempted it, were 
dragged out insensible. The Seine was built in 
compartments, and the crew were able to restrict 
the fire to the one in which it first broke out, 
whilst they steamed back to St. Thomas's. They 
entered the harbour and made fast to the buoy, 
then getting assistance from the other ships, the 
fire was soon put out ; but Capt. Eivett told me 
that before he got back, he could see that the outside 
of the ship was red hot. Little damage was clone 
to the Seine, but £40,000 worth of cigars were 
destroyed by this accident. 

As there were so many passengers, there was 
not room in the saloon for us all at once, so there 
were two breakfasts, at 8 and 9 '30, and two 
dinners, at 4 and 6 o'clock. Dinners a la Russe 
have been introduced on board most of the ships. 
This is not a bad plan for a steamer if well carried 
out, and the cooking be good ; but if the entrees 
are liver and bacon and pork chops, as was often 
the case here, it can hardly be considered to be 
an imitation of a French dinner. Of course it 
was a considerable task to provision so many 
people, and was not like a man-of-war, where salt 
beef and pease-soup are the principal stores ; but 



PROVENDER OF SEA-GOING SHIPS, 



133 



here everyone wanted fresh meat two or three 
times a day. So there was a regular butcher's 
shop on board, with two butchers ; and five sheep, 
or two sheep, a bullock, or a pig, were killed every 
day ; also, sixty fowls, besides ducks, turkeys 
and geese. To supply this, the outward-bound 
ships each carried out a small flock of Hampshire 
Downs, and very good mutton they were ; but the 
beef, on the homeward voyage, was from Porto 
Eico, and was poor stuff. The Company was once 
famous for its provender ; but now they economise 
to the last halfpenny, and it is done mostly in the 
feeding of the passengers. The poor foreigners 
suffer much. One Frenchman complained bit- 
terly : " I would not blame if they made me pay 
double for de claret wort one shilling, but it is 
not wort one sixpence." However, there was 
excellent water on board, distilled by the " Nor- 
mandie" system from seawater. 

On account of the number of passengers, we 
were put in a fore-cabin, so we had to pass the 
engine, galley, and butcher's shop to get to it. 
We had taken return tickets from England, and 
as transatlantic passengers have all advantages 
given to them, we thought we were all right. But 
at St. Thomas's, to our surprise, they told us that 
everyone had precedence over those with return- 
tickets. I think this must be considered rather 
a curious rule ; but I suppose if you have a 



134 



RETURN TICKETS. 



return ticket, the Company think that they have 
you safe, to bring you back when they choose. 
Eeally, I believe if it had not been for the kind- 
ness of Capt. Eivett, we should not have got a 
cabin at all. As I had paid in London for an 
after-cabin the whole distance out and back, and 
£15 extra for an outside one, I applied to have 
the extra money returned, according to the Com- 
pany's printed rules ; but they said " No ; that 
because we had not four people put into our 
cabin, they would not refund us anything." So 
in future, I think they might as well scratch this 
rule out of their prospectus. 

However, " All's well that ends well f and it 
was a great satisfaction to me to remember that 
Mrs. E., who had had a cough for three years, had 
now so completely lost it, that she had not 
coughed since we passed the Azores in our out- 
ward voyage. We had been before to the United 
States in the Great Eastern, besides other shorter 
voyages, so she was a pretty good sailor ; and I, 
having been a good deal in tropical seas, had 
always fancied that they would be the very best 
place for anyone with delicate lungs, and now 
I was glad to find that the voyage had answered 
my most sanguine expectations. 

We landed at Southampton on the morning of 
April 28th, and so finished a very pleasant tour 



LOCI OF THE SEINE, 



135 



of three months and a half ; and, what was better, 
found very warm weather when we got home 
again. * 



# I here give the Log of the Seine : — 





Miles. 




Miles, 


14 ... 


... 170 


April 21 ... 


... 272 


15 ... 


... 218 


22 .. 


... 270 


16 ... 


... 231 


23 ... 


... 272 


17 ... 


... 262 


24 ... 


... 252 


18 ... 


... 261 


25 ... 


... 246 


19 ... 


... 238 


26 ... 


... 258 


20 ... 


... 250 


27 ... 


... 264 



FINIS. 



LONDON: T. RICHARDS, 37 GREAT QUEEN STREET. 



3U77-6 

1 



